Senior players were rested as India on Sunday named a second-string squad with Suresh Raina as the captain and Virat Kohli his deputy for the low-profile Zimbabwe tour starting later this month.

Regular captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and senior players Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Gautam Gambhir and Ashish Nehra were rested as the BCCI senior selection committee, which met here on Sunday, named a young 15-member squad with new faces galore.

Dinesh Karthik has been named the specialist wicketkeeper for the tour which begins with a tri-series – also involving Sri Lanka – on May 28 while Madhya Pradesh batsman-stumper Naman Ojha is also part of the squad.

Once the tri-series is over on June 9, leg-spinner Piyush Chawla will join the squad for India’s subsequent two Twenty20 Internationals against Zimbabwe on June 12 and 13.

Apart from Karthik and Naman Ojha, the side includes specialist batsmen Murali Vijay, Raina, Kohli and Rohit Sharma, besides all-rounders in Yusuf Pathan and Ravindra Jadeja.

Leg-spinner Amit Mishra, left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha and offie Ravichandran Ashwin will spearhead the slow bowling department in the tri-series, while the largely inexperienced pace attack will comprise Umesh Yadav (Vidarbha), R Vinay Kumar (Karnataka), Ashok Dinda (Bengal) and Pankaj Singh (Rajasthan).

The selectors also announced a 16-member India ‘A’ squad for a tri-series in England, naming Cheteshwar Pujara as its captain and Wriddhiman Saha his deputy.

Zimbabwe Tri-series squad: Suresh Raina (Captain), Virat Kohli (Vice-captain), Murali Vijay, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Rohit Sharma, Yusuf Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar, Ashok Dinda, Pankaj Singh, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Naman Ojha.

T20 squad: Suresh Raina (Captain), Virat Kohli (Vice-captain), Murali Vijay, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Rohit Sharma, Yusuf Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar, Ashok Dinda, Pankaj Singh, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Naman Ojha and Piyush Chawla.

India ‘A’ team: Cheteshwar Pujara (Captain), Wriddiman Saha (wk), Abhinav Mukund, Shikar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Manish Pandey, Sourav Tiwary, Iqbal Abdulla, Sudeep Tyagi, Dhaval Kulkarni, Abhimanyu Mithun, Kedar Jadhav, Manoj Tiwary, Jaskaran Singh, Bipul Sharma and Jayadev Unadkad.

Zimbabwe Cricket on Wednesday confirmed Bangladesh’s tour to the country for five One-Day Internationals between August 5 and 19. 

All the matches will be played in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second largest city.

Zimbabwe last played an ODI series in February in Kenya, whitewashing the hosts 5-0.

The team missed out on the recent Twenty20 World Cup in England after Britain said it would not grant visas to a team representing Zimbabwe, then under the disputed leadership of President Robert Mugabe before the formation of an inclusive government in which Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai is prime minister.

New Zealand have postponed their tour to Zimbabwe, scheduled for July this year, to June 2010 as the boards of the two countries mutually agreed for the move due to security reasons.

“Zimbabwe Cricket was aware of the New Zealand government’s opposition to the proposed tour and asked for the deferral. They believed by 2010 the current political power sharing arrangements will have a positive impact on their country,” New Zealand Cricket Chief Executive Justin Vaughan said in a press release.

The agreement was reached during the ICC Executive Committee meeting in Johannesburg.

Vaughan asserted postponement was the best option in the current times.

“This is a pragmatic solution that allows the situation in Zimbabwe to be monitored over the next year,” he said.

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key was already averse to the idea of Kiwis going to the African nation.

“I’m pretty reluctant for the Black Caps to travel. There are very real, genuine security risks for our players,” he had said.

Zimbabwe need more time before they can hope to return to the Test fold, the International Cricket Council (ICC) said on Saturday. 

The troubled team was withdrawn from Tests by the national board in January 2006 after being left depleted by confrontations between senior players and the administration.

An ICC task force formed to help them return to Test cricket travelled to Zimbabwe last November. It submitted an interim report to the ICC Board which began a two-day meeting in Perth, Australia on Saturday.

“Pending submission of that final report (in April), the Board was told none of the stakeholders spoken to during the visit were of the view that Zimbabwe was ready to return to Test cricket, with timeframes proposed ranging from six months to two years or more,” an ICC statement said.

Zimbabwe cricket has lurched from one crisis to another in the last few years.

The task force was appointed last July when Zimbabwe agreed to skip this year’s Twenty20 World Cup in England to end a deadlock over demands for its suspension from international cricket because of Robert Mugabe’s government.

Indian and South African cricket boards have offered playing and administrative support respectively to help Zimbabwe.

The meeting also deferred an application by the unofficial Indian Cricket League (ICL) seeking approval. At present, players joining the Twenty20 league face automatic ban from all forms of official cricket.

Shakib Al Hasan grabbed 3-15 before hitting an unbeaten 33 to guide Bangladesh to a series-clinching six-wicket win in the third One-Day International against Zimbabwe on Friday.

The 21-year-old left-hander justified his recent status as the top One-day all rounder as Bangladesh surpassed Zimbabwe’s 119-9 with 27 balls to spare in a match reduced to 37 overs per side due to fog.

The chase did not appear easy at one time with the hosts wobbling at 89-4, but Shakib and Mushfiqur Rahim (20 not out) kept their nerve to help their side clinch the three-match series 2-1.

Shakib hit four fours, all against spinner Prosper Utseya, in his 36-ball knock while Rahim brought off the winning runs with a boundary off paceman Edward Rainsford.

Veteran Raymond Price was the pick of the Zimbabwe bowlers, returning 2-9 off seven measly overs.

Earlier, the pace-spin combination of Mashrafe Mortaza (3-26) and Shakib did the trick for Bangladesh with the duo accounting for six Zimbabwe wickets after skipper Mohammad Ashraful put the visitors in to bat.

Mortaza started the slide when he trapped opener Vusimuzi Sibanda leg-before in the very first over before returning to dismiss the next two batsmen in an inspired opening spell.

Left-arm spinner Shakib rattled the visitors further by getting rid of Elton Chigumbura, Raymond Price and Rainsford in quick succession.

Off-spinner Mohammad Mahmudullah chipped in with two wickets and Rubel Hossain with one to underline yet another disciplined performance by the home team bowlers.

Sean Williams, who top-scored with 59 in the previous game which the visitors lost by six wickets, offered some resistance in making 38 off 46 balls with five fours, but that was about all.