After taking a 2-1 lead in the five-match One-Day International series against New Zealand, the Board of Control for Cricket in India on Monday retained the same squad for the remaining two matches of the rubber.

Senior batsman Suresh Raina, who missed the first three matches due to viral fever has been ruled out of the remainder of the series.

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“The All-India Senior Selection Committee has decided to retain the same 14-member squad for the remaining two matches of the five-match ODI Trophy against New Zealand,” the BCCI said in a statement.

“Suresh Raina is still to regain his full fitness and has been ruled out of the remainder of the series,” it added.

On Sunday, riding on star batsman Virat Kohli’s unbeaten 154 and an equally effective 80 from skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, India trounced the Kiwis by seven wickets in the third match at Mohali to go 2-1 up.

The Indians also won the first match at Dharamsala by six wickets before falling short by six runs in New Delhi.

Both the teams will now lock horns in the fourth game at Ranchi on Wednesday while the final game will be played at Visakhapatnam on October 29.

Squad:

Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Captain & wk), Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Jayant Yadav, Amit Mishra, Jasprit Bumrah, Dhawal Kulkarni, Umesh Yadav, Mandeep Singh, Kedar Jadhav.

IANS

Australia beat the hosts West Indies by 58 runs to win the final of the One-Day International tri-series in Barbados. Australia, winning the toss and batting first, made 270 for 9. After a middle order collapse, thanks mainly to a terrific late-order contribution from Matthew Wade, who made an unbeaten 57 from 52 balls, that the Aussies could put a par score.

In reply West Indies were bowled out for 212 in 45.4 overs. Josh Hazlewood picked up 5 for 50 and Mitchell Marsh, who was declared player of the match, bagged 3 for 32, including a first spell of 6-1-7-3. Hazlewood was named player of the series for his 11 wickets. Australia captain Steve Smith spoke to the media, analysing the series win.

It’s Australia versus West Indies in the Caribbean tri-series final. In a virtual semifinal South Africa meekly surrendered to the hosts by 100 runs in Barbados. After their World T20 triumph in India the hosts have shown incredible resilience to reach another final and the Australian captain acknowledged the challenge in the final.

Smith agreed that Marlon Samuels is the batsman in form and he’s especially played really well against them. George Bailey spoke about the Australian’s exciting batting line up with Glenn Maxwell and Mitchell Marsh again amongst runs. Smith admitted that Starc might have been inconsistent in the series as he is coming back from an injury layoff but he’s getting better with every match.

A young Indian side sweeps the one-day international series against Zimbabwe 3-0. Choosing to bat first, the hosts could manage a paltry 123 off 42.2 overs. For India Jasprit Bumrah took 4 wickets for 22 runs. Chasing 124, both Indian openers scored half centuries for an easy 10-wicket victory. Debutant opener Faiz Fazal scored 55* and KL Rahul again was his dominant best, scoring an unbeaten 63 off 70 balls. KL Rahul was declared both Man of the Match and Man of the series.

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West Indies beat Australia by by four wickets with 26 balls to spare at Warner Park, St Kitts. Put into bat, Australia scored 265 for 7 with Usman Khawaja (98), Steve Smith (74) and George Bailey (55) all scoring half-centuries.

In reply, the hosts knocked off the runs for the loss of six wickets with Marlon Samuels scoring a handsome 92.

Australia still head the table with two wins from four matches plus a bonus point. The West Indies also have two wins but from three games. And South Africa have one win from three matches, that came with a bonus point.

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Australia’s 36-run win against South Africa was marred by news of David Warner’s injury. The Australian opener has suffered a fracture to his left index finger while fielding during the tri-series match in St Kitts.

Australian captain Steve Smith said that David’s injury will keep him out of the rest of the tournament that is due to conclude with the final in Barbados on 26th June. But he sounded confident that Warner will be fit for the Qantas tour of Sri Lanka that gets underway next month.

Before the confirmation to the fracture the Australia batsman spoke with the media after collecting the player of the match award for his innings of 109 that helped his side in winning the match against South Africa. Warner spoke about his injury and also how spending less time at the nets is the secret to his batting success.

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Having watched cricket all my life, I find no reasons to follow the game religiously the way I used to. Too much cricket, watched enough for an entire lifetime already; no longer part of a news set-up so no need to follow the game; players of today’s generation are not like a Rahul Dravid or a Sachin Tendulkar.

But along comes a player every now and then, who makes you want him to do well, makes you switch off the TV set once he gets out, makes you spend hours watching the game you thought you had fallen out with.

Kannaur Lokesh Rahul’s batting and the way he carries himself makes you do just that. The technique and time he has while playing against the fast bowlers, the innovation he has added to his batting while playing the shorter format of the game, his ground fielding and wicket keeping ability has all added to his charisma. His Test average of only 25.69 may not do justice to Rahul’s immense batting talent, but he showed enough class and poise while scoring his first Test hundred in just the second Test match of his life.

He returns from Zimbabwe as India’s best batsman with scores of 100, 33, 63, 0, 47, 22 in the ODIs and T20s. And in all likelihood could retain his Team India place in the limited overs game.

Centuries for KL Rahul in both Test and ODI

Most deserving youngster to make the grade

You also take heart from the fact that his selection to the Test squad was not because of any fluke performance in the IPL, though he did have a decent IPL season playing for Pune Sunrisers in 2014. His selection was mainly due to some outstanding batting in the domestic circuit.

In the 2013-14 Ranji Trophy, the Karnataka batsman topped the batting charts for his side by scoring more than 1000 runs and was also declared the Man of the Match in the final. Rahul played a big part in winning the Ranji Trophy title that season for Karnataka. He didn’t stop there. In the Duleep Trophy final the same year playing for South Zone against the Central Zone, Rahul scored centuries in both the innings – 185 off 233 in the first and 130 off 152 in the second. No selection committee could have ignored such sheer numbers so he got to make his Test debut at the age of 22.

Domestic performances getting rewarded will go a long way in motivating aspiring cricketers and giving life to the neglected Ranji Trophy.

After coming back from the Australian tour, Rahul went onto score a historic triple century (337), the first Karnataka batsman to achieve the feat in Ranji Trophy. His feat was later replicated by teammate Karun Nair, who scored 328 against Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy final next year.

The Making of KL Rahul

Rahul has gone for a complete makeover. And I’m not talking about his long hair and beard look. Not so long back he was dismissed as a Test specialist only but success in the IPL this year and now a century on ODI debut against Zimbabwe (the first Indian to do so) has added a new dimension to India’s batting.

His IPL success and love for tattoos (he now sports seven tattoos) have added to his fan following. And tweets like these are making new fans join the ranks each day – 
@rahulkl“My body is my journal ,and My tattoos are my story “

Not only cricket, Rahul is a sports fan

Rahul played other sports while growing up and he has kept the interest going as you can clearly see from his tweeted pictures.

KL Rahul playing tennis & football

No doubt he has all the credentials to be a crowd puller off the field, like his Test and IPL captain Virat Kohli. And now with a century on his one-day international debut – there’s no stopping this young man from Karnataka. No doubt he will have to show consistency, curb his strokes at beginning of an innings. But with age on his side and the ability to adapt to all three formats, it will be well worth watching Rahul’s cricketing journey.

By Rajesh Sahu

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A dominant young Indian team demolished Zimbabwe in the first one day international at Harare on Saturday. Indian captain won the toss and put the hosts to bat first. Indian bowlers stamped their authority from the word go and bowled out their opposition for 168. Jasprit Bumrah with 4 for 28 was the pick of the bowlers. Chasing 169 for victory India lost Karun Nair early but KL Rahul scored an unbeaten 100 on his ODI debut and Ambati Rayudu (62*) steered India to victory with plenty to spare.

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India’s limited-overs series against Zimbabwe is not as big as facing England, Australia or South Africa. Apart from the involvement of MS Dhoni in the series, there is not much hype or excitement for the three ODIs and as many T20s that the Indian team would be playing in the African nation.

Despite all that, the series has its own importance in many ways. The most important of those is the presence of youngsters, such as KL Rahul, Manish Pandey and others. Dhoni is set to lead the future of Indian cricket in Zimbabwe, making it a very important series for Team India.

Performances of players like Pandey and Rahul, in particular, will be observed closely, as in the limited outings with the Indian team they have managed to stamp their mark. Rahul, who has been rewarded for his impressive IPL season, will be making his debut in the shorter format of the game.

Rahul, for record, is currently the only player in the Indian setup that is playing all three formats of the game. He has two Test hundred, both overseas, to his credit in Test cricket, and this is the first time he is a part of the Indian ODI and T20 squad.

Young batting hopes of India: KL Rahul and Manish Pandey

“In the batting department we know how Manish Pandey played that dazzling knock in Sydney against Australia and won us that game,” India coach Sanjay Bangar said. “We then have Kedar Jadhav and Ambati Rayudu, who both scored a century in the tour of Zimbabwe. KL Rahul has made a mark in the IPL and has had success in the past with the Indian Test team.”

There is not an iota of doubt that India team has a talented bunch of players, but at the same time lack of experience could hurt them. Zimbabwe are no pushovers, especially at home, they are a resilience unit and knows the conditions well, which could fell against India.

Captain Dhoni, meanwhile, has pointed out that finding the right combination is going to be challenging. Dhoni hasn’t played with most of the players in the current squad, and in a short series that only has six matches – three one-dayers and three T20s – it is important to field a strong squad right from the first match itself.

“You keep playing with almost the same group of players,” Dhoni said. “So you almost know the roles and responsibilities and what each player’s strengths are. There will be quite a few players in this bilateral series with whom I’ll be playing for the first time.”

The last time India toured Zimbabwe they blanked them in the one-day series, and also won the T20 series. Team India is heading as favorites this time too, but they will be banking majorly on Dhoni’s experience and leadership skills.

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A young cricket team led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni left for Zimbabwe from Mumbai, for a limited-overs series against Zimbabwe starting June 11. Team will be playing three One Day Internationals and three Twenty20 Internationals against Zimbabwe. A day before their departure, Dhoni along with KL Rahul, Mandeep Singh, Dhawal Kulkarni and Jayant Yadav held a press conference in Mumbai. While BCCI’s search for a fill time coach continues, Sanjay Bangar will coach the men in blue on this tour.

Apart from Dhoni the rest of the team for the tour has a collective experience of 83 ODIs and 28 T20Is.

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