Dhawal Kulkarni gets a look-in by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

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Player:	S Badrinath, L Balaji, KD Karthik, DS Kulkarni
Event:	India in New Zealand 2008/09

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DateLine: 13th February 2009

 

Dhawal Kulkarni, the Mumbai paceman who was the leading wicket-taker in this season's Ranji trophy, has been rewarded with a call-up to the national squad. Lakshmipathy Balaji, Murali Vijay and Dinesh Karthik, all of whom are from the southern state of Tamil Nadu have also been included in the Test squad.

 

Harbhajan Singh has fully recovered from his injury and has been included in all three squads. Ravindra Jadeja, who made his debut in the recently concluded Sri Lanka series, has also been retained for the two T20s. S. Badrinath has been left out of the squad despite never getting a game. India have decided to not select a reserve middle order batsman and have chosen only two spinners, Amit Mishra taking the second spot.

 

Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane missed out on the Test squad despite impressive showings in the domestic circuit. RP Singh and Sreesanth despite being fully fit, were ignored by the selectors for the longer version of the game as the selectors opted for current performances rather than past glory.

 

India will play a three-match Test series, five One-Day Internationals and two Twenty20 matches in New Zealand. The tour begins with a Twenty20 International in Christchurch on February 25 and another T20 match in Wellington two days later. The first ODI will be played in Napier on March 3.

 

Sachin Tendulkar has pulled out of the two Twenty20 matches as the star batsman has always preferred to stay away from the shortest format of the game.

 

Squads :

 

Test : Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Virender Sehwag (vice-captain), Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, V.V.S. Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel, Murali Vijay, Amit Mishra, L. Balaji, Dhawal Kulkarni, Dinesh Karthik.

 

ODI : Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Virender Sehwag (vice-captain), Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel, Irfan Pathan, Pragyan Ojha, Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik, Praveen Kumar.

 

Twenty20 : Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Virender Sehwag (vice-captain), Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Munaf Patel, Pragyan Ojha, Dinesh Karthik, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Irfan Pathan, Praveen Kumar.