(Reuters) – All-rounder Irfan Pathan has been drafted into the India squad for their two remaining one-day internationals against West Indies in place of paceman Umesh Yadav, who will leave for Australia early to get acclimatised for an upcoming tour.
Yadav will be among seven Indian cricketers leaving tomorrow for Australia for the four-test series, starting in Melbourne on Dec. 26.
Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Vangipurappu Laxman, Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha and Wriddhiman Saha are the rest of the players who will travel to Australia early, the Indian cricket board (BCCI) said in a statement late on Monday.
Selectors also named 22-year-old paceman Abhimanyu Mithun as the replacement for Praveen Kumar, who was ruled out with a fractured rib, in the test squad for Australia.
Kumar missed the ODI series at home against West Indies and is expected to recover in five to six weeks, ruling him out of the Australia tests too.
In Australia, India will also play two Twenty20 internationals and a ODI tri-series, with Sri Lanka being the third team.
Left-hander Pathan, 27, who made his debut for India in a test match against Australia when he was just 19, had been out of the reckoning for the national side of late due to his indifferent bowling form.
He last played for India in the Twenty20 World Cup against West Indies in June 2009, and his last 50-over match was five months before that.
However, some solid performances in the domestic circuit this season, during which he took 21 wickets in three games, brought him back on the selectors’ radar.
Selectors retained the rest of the squad, which lead the ODI seires against West Indies 2-1 with the last two ODIs tomorrow (Indore) and Sunday (Chennai).
