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Mumbai: Keeping in mind the 2015 World Cup, India’s cricket selectors have decided to invest in rookies like leg-spinner Karn Sharma and wicketkeeper-batsman Sanju Samson by picking them in the 17-member One Day International (ODI) squad for the five-match series and a Twenty20 international in England starting August 25.
The senior selection committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) met here on Tuesday and decided to drop Yuvraj Singh and ignore Gautam Gambhir for the ODI series in England.
BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel said the selectors emphasised on youth for the World Cup, which will be held in Australia and New Zealand in February-March next year.
“For the selectors, the emphasis was on picking young players for the series. All the players we have picked in the ODI series are young,” said Patel.
The 19-year-old Samson, who is mentored by Rahul Dravid, was in outstanding form for India A in the recent quadrangular series in Australia, scoring 244 runs in seven matches. In the Ranji Trophy, he has scored 530 runs at an average of 58.88 and has been scoring heavily in the last two editions of the IPL.
The 26-year-old Karn, who plays for Railways, has been a consistent performer for Sunrisers Hyderabad, who made the Champions League Twenty20 qualifiers. He picked up 11 wickets in 13 IPL matches last season.
Patel also said that Amit Mishra, who is with the Test team in England, has been ruled out of the series through injury.
On Ishant Sharma’s recovery, Patel said: “Ishant is also doing well in the recovery process and is likely to be available for the fifth Test.”
Ishant was dropped from the ODI side and the six pacers for the series will be Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Shami, Mohit Sharma, Stuart Binny, Umesh Yadav and Dhawal Kulkarni.
Binny impressed with his all-round abilities in the last ODI series in Bangladesh and was also impressive with the bat during the ongoing Test series in England.
The five ODIs will be played at Bristol (Aug 25), Cardiff (Aug 27), Nottingham (Aug 30), Birmingham (Sep 2) and Leeds (Sep 5), with the only Twenty20 slated for September 7 also at Birmingham.