India's top cricketers including the big three--Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid --will not take part in the upcoming NKP Salve Challenger Trophy with the selectors deciding to rest them in view of the busy calendar ahead.
Apart from the three stalwarts, most of the other members of India's current ODI team such as Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Irfan Pathan, have also been rested from the limited overs tournament to be held in Ahmedabad from October 25 to 28.
Virender Sehwag, hoping to force his way back into the national team, has been named as captain of 'India Blue' team while another discard Mohd Kaif will lead the 'India Red' team. Wicket-keeper batsman Parthiv Patel will be at the helm of 'India Green' team.
All the players who have joined the rebel Indian Cricket League have expectedly not found a place in any of the three teams announced by BCCI Secretary Niranjan Shah through a press release.
Although the release did not specify why the senior players were left out, a top BCCI source said it was done only to give them some rest ahead of the series against Pakistan and Australia.
Pakistan are scheduled to visit India in November December for three Tests and five one-dayers which will be followed by the Indian team's tour of Australia.
The tournament will provide a chance for pacer Munaf Patel, Suresh Raina among others who are looking to cement their place in the Indian team.
Murali Kartik, who got a surprise recall to the senior side after a long gap midway through the ongoing one-day series against Australia, has found a place in 'Green' team.
Each team will play once against each other to decide the finalists.
Team: India Red: Mohd Kaif (C), Karan Goel, Gautam Gambhir, S Bhadrinath, Virat Kohli, Ravneet Ricky, Praveen Kumar, Mahesh Rawat, Pragyan Ojha, Sidharth Trivedi, Ishant Sharma, Penal Shah, Srikant Munde, Paresh Patel, Lalchand Rajput (Coach)
India Green: Parthiv Patel (C), Cheteshwar Pujara, Rohit Sharma, Murali Karthik, Manoj Tiwary, Yusuf Pathan Abhishek Nair, Niranjan Behra, Iqbal Abdullah, Pankaj Singh, Munaf Patel, Gagandeep Singh, Anirudh Srikant, Satyajeet Parab Venkatesh Prasad (coach)
India Blue: Virender Sehwag(C), Ajinkya Rahane, Dinesh Karthik, Suresh Raina, Neeraj Patel, Arjun Yadav, Joginder Sharma, Ramesh Powar, Amit Mishra, Yo Mahesh, Randeb Bose Swapnil Asnodkar, Rakesh V Dhruv, Saurav Bandekar Praveen Amre (Coach)
Match Schedule Oct 25 India Red v/s India Blue; Oct 26 India Green v/s India Red; Oct 27 India Green v/s India Blue Oct 28 Final Match.
