Ahmedabad: Young right-arm fast bowler Abhimanyu Mithun on Monday replaced injured Praveen Kumar in India’s Test squad for the upcoming four-match away series against Australia.
Mithun, who has played four Tests for India, the last in Barbados in May, has been added to the 17-man squad after Praveen was ruled out of the Test series in Australia with a fractured rib.Mithun joins Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron and Ishant Sharma in India’s pace department for the Australia tour, with pacer spearhead Zaheer Khan selected provisionally, as he has to prove his fitness before the squad’s departure.
The BCCI’s All-India Senior Selection Committee which met here also replaced pacer Yadav with Irfan Pathan for the last two ODIs against the West Indies.
Umesh’s exclusion has been the only change in the current ODI team as the selectors have retained the rest of the squad for the remaining two matches against the Caribbean side, according to a statement issued by BCCI.
Irfan, who has not played for India since 2009, drew the selectors attention by virtue of his impressive performance in this season’s Ranji Trophy, in which he is the leading wicket-taker with 21 scalps.
Indian team for last two ODIs : Sehwag (captain), Gambhir, Kohli, Rahane, Raina, Jadeja, Parthiv =, Ashwin, Vinay Kumar, Irfan Pathan, Aaron, Rohit Sharma, Manoj Tiwary, Rahul Sharma, A Mithun. (PTI)