Fit-again Zaheer back in ODI team

Expectedly, Suresh Raina will play no further part in the series, which India lead 2-0, and has been rested. He will fly to South Africa on December 6 with the group of players reaching Cape Town early to prepare for the forthcoming Test series.

The selectors, who met here on Friday, also made some bizarre changes, randomly picking some and dropping others. The National selection panel, headed by K Srikkanth, gave Bengal ’keeper Wriddhiman Saha another chance, retaining him in the squad for the third ODI, but left him out of the final two games, choosing to take another look at Parthiv Patel. Parthiv last played an ODI in 2004 against Sri Lanka in Colombo.

The selectors also found a place for Rohit Sharma for the last two ODIs, recalling the Mumbai middle-order batsman and leaving out R Vinay Kumar.

Squad for third ODI: Gautam Gambhir (capt), Murali Vijay, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Saurabh Tiwary, Yusuf Pathan, Wriddhiman Saha, R Ashwin, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Praveen Kumar, Munaf Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, R Vinay Kumar.

For fourth and fifth ODIs: Gambhir (capt), Vijay, Kohli, Yuvraj, Tiwary, Pathan, Parthiv Patel, Ashwin, Nehra, Munaf, Zaheer, Praveen, Jadeja, Rohit Sharma.