Rayudu, Karthik out too

Rayudu, Karthik out too

Apart from MS Dhoni, two players who had been part of India’s ODI World Cup plans last year were dropped — Ambati Rayudu and Dinesh Karthik. Rayudu got to play a lot of ODI cricket in the run-up to the World Cup, when India were trying to firm up their shaky middle order. However, he was not picked up in the team for the World Cup. Following which he announced his retirement, only to come out of retirement. Karthik had been dropped from the ODI and T20 team following India’s exit from the World Cup.

Rahul gets raise

KL Rahul has been promoted from B grade to A. Having lost his place in the Test team following a dismal tour of Australia last year, Rahul has made a strong comeback and been a consistent performer in the shorter formats. Test opener Mayank Agarwal, who has done well since making his debut during the tour of Australia in 2018-19, has been included in Grade B, which also features Hardik Pandya and Yuzvendra Chahal along with two others. Pacer Navdeep Saini and T20 specialist Washington Sundar are new entrants in Grade C alongside Shreyas Iyer, Deepak Chahar and Shardul Thakur. Though he has not played Tests, Saini has emerged as an option in all three formats.