Mumbai, January 28: The BCCI selection committee today named Karnataka pacer Abhimanyu Mithun and West Bengal wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Saha in the 15 member Test squad for the first Test against South Africa.
Tamil Nadu’s Subramaniam Badrinath who has been in the fringes of the Test side for last couple of years was also named as a cover for Rahul Dravid who will not be available for the first Test against South Africa due to a fractured cheek bone and have been advised a three weeks rest.
Also missing will be Yuvraj Singh and pacer Sreesanth both whom are down with hamstring injuries.
Saha’s inclusion means there is no place for Dinesh Karthick in the side and the young Bengal stumper will be the back up for skipper MS Dhoni.
The selectors also named a 14 member Board President’s XI and will be led by Mumbai’s Rohit Sharma and also include Abhimanyu Mithun who is also in the Test side. The touring South Africans will play a two day match against the Board President’s XI in Nagpur ahead of the first Test.
Squad for first Test: MS Dhoni (capt), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, S Badrinath, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Ishant Sharma, M Vijay, Sudeep Tyagi, Abhimanyu Mithun, Wriddhiman Saha.
Board President’s XI: Abhinav Mukund, Parthiv Patel, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma (capt), Manish Pandey, Cheteshwar Pujara, Abhishek Nayar, Piyush Chawla, R Ashwin, Vinay Kumar, Abhimanyu Mithun, Shikhar Dhawan, Umesh Yadav, Manpreet Gony.
–Agencies