The national cricket selectors on Monday turned down a request for an off-spinner and retained the 14-member Indian team, which is now in Nairobi, for the October 20-29 triangular series in Sharjah. The five-member selection committee, including Sanjay Jagdale, also named Hyderabad's V V S Laxman as skipper of the Rest of India team in the Irani Cup tournament against Ranji trophy champions Mumbai to be played here from October 13 to 17.
BCCI Secretary Jaywant Lele, after announcing the two teams, said there was a request for including an off-spinner in the Sharjah squad from the team management, which is taking part in the ICC Knockout Cup tournament. For Sharjah: Saurav Ganguly (capt), Sachin Tendulkar, S Sriram, Rahul Dravid (vice-capt), Vinod Kambli, Yuvraj Singh, Robin Singh, Vijay Dahiya (WK), Ajit Agarkar, Anil Kumble, Venkatesh Prasad, Zaheer Khan, Sunil Joshi and Hemang Badani.
For Irani Cup: V V S Laxman (capt, Hyderabad), S Ramesh (TN), Shib Sunder Das (Orissa), Mohd Kaif (UP), Jacob Martin (Baroda), Abhijit Kale (Maharashtra), Virender Sehwag (Delhi), Ajay Ratra (WK, Haryana), Murali Karthik (Railways), Javagal Srinath (Karnataka), Ashish Nehra (Delhi), Laxmi Ratan Shukla (Bengal), Sharandip Singh and Reetinder Singh Sodhi (both Punjab).