Mumbai's Dhawal Kulkarni in India ODI squad for Windies series, Ishant, Vinay axed

Out-of-form pacers Ishant Sharma and R Vinay Kumar were today dropped from India's 15-member squad for the three-match ODI series against the West Indies, starting at Kochi on November 21.

Under-fire Ishant and Vinay Kumar have been replaced by uncapped Dhawal Kulkarni and Haryana pacer Mohit Sharma in the squad, a release from the Cricket Board said.

Dhawal Kulkarni has been rewarded for being a consistent performer in domestic cricket. File Pic

The Indian selectors finally ran out of patience and axed Ishant following his nightmarish outing against Australia in the recent ODI series. He was hammered for 30 runs in one over in the third ODI against Australia at Mohali last month. Amid growing calls of changes in the bowling department, the selectors have also shown the door to Vinay Kumar, another unimpressive performer in the Australia series.

By selecting Mohit and Dhawal, the selectors have shown faith in youth instead of opting for veteran Zaheer Khan, whose last ODI appearance came against Sri Lanka at Pallekele in August last year.

Apart from these two changes, the selectors have retained the rest of the side that won the seven-match ODI series against Australia 3-2.

The squad announced by BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel after a meeting of the selection committee will be led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

The squad has seven batsmen in skipper Dhoni, Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina and Ambati Rayudu.

The five-member pace attack will be led by Mohammad Shami and also includes Bhuvneshwar Kumar and left-arm seamer Jaydev Unadkat.

Off-spinner R Ashwin will spearhead the spin department along with leggie Amit Mishra and left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja.

India and West Indies, currently engaged in a two-match Test rubber which is also Sachin Tendulkar's farewell series, will play three ODIs. The second and third ODI of the series will be held at Visakhapatnam (November 24) and Kanpur (November 27).

The Team:

Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Shikhar Dhawan Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Ambati Rayudu, Amit Mishra, Jaydev Unadkat, Dhawal Kulkarni Mohit Sharma.u00a0