India pick 15-man squad for New Zealand Tests

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The selections for the New Zealand cricket Test series did not throw up any surprises with Mahendra Singh Dhoni leading a 15-member Indian team for the three-match series beginning November 4 in Ahmedabad. Seamer Ishant Sharma and opening batsman Gambhir return to the squad after sitting out the

second of the two Tests against visiting Australia earlier this month due to knee injuries.

The pair played in the first Test at Mohali that India won by one wicket, but missed the second game in Bangalore where the home team clinched the series 2-0 with a seven-wicket victory.

Going out of the Test squad are batsman Abhinav Mukund (Tamil Nadu) and left-arm seamer Jaidev Unadkat (Saurashtra) both of whom were included for the Bangalore game as back-up players and did not get into the playing eleven.

New Zealand are scheduled to play three Test matches at Ahmedabad (Nov 4-8), Hyderabad (Nov 12-16) and Nagpur (Nov 20-24).

The Test series will be followed by five One-Day Internationals on Nov 28 (Guwahati), Dec 1 (Jaipur), Dec 4 (Vadodara), Dec 7 (Bangalore) and Dec 10 (Chennai).

The Indian team will then head to South Africa for three Tests and five ODIs Dec 16-Jan 23, 2011.

The squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Virender Sehwag (vice-captain), Gautam Gambhir, Murali Vijay, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Santhakumaran Sreesanth, Pragyan Ojha, Cheteshwar Pujara and Amit Mishra.