Leicestershire’s star middle order batsman Dinesh Mongia has forced his way back into the 15-member Indian ODI Squad selected for the upcoming Tri Series in Sri Lanka. Along with Dinesh Mongia, Sachin Tendulkar returns to the Indian Side as expected after he was cleared as fully recovered from his shoulder injury. Young Robin Uthappa, the dashing opener who had made 86 on his ODI Debut has become the sacrificial goat to make way for the great man. There haven’t been many surprises as expected considering the 1-4 loss to a weak West Indies Side. Y.Venugopal Rao who hasn’t done anything spectacular after playing quite some ODIs has been left out with the Selectors getting impressed with Dinesh Mongia’s impressive show in the English County. Dinesh Mongia, the 29-year-old has till date scored 799 runs in the 10 matches this season at an average of 57.07 with two fifties and three centuries. Mongia has played 51 ODIs and has scored 1073 runs at a moderate average of 27.51 with one hundred and three fifties. He had last played for India against Pakistan in Delhi. In the bowling department, there hasn’t been any change and RP Singh who did not have a great time in the Caribbean managed to keep his place.
India ODI Squad for Lanka Tri Series : Rahul Dravid (Captain), Virender Sehwag (Vice Captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Mongia, Mohammad Kaif, Suresh Raina, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Wicket Keeper), Ajit Agarkar, Harbhajan Singh, Ramesh Powar, Irfan Pathan, Munaf Patel, Rudra Pratap Singh, Sreesanth