India vs Zimbabwe 2016 Squad: Final Indian team for India tour of Zimbabwe 2016 announced

There were several surprise picks in the 16-man India team that has been picked for the tour of Zimbabwe. MS Dhoni will lead the side, but several players stand a chance to earn their debuts on this series. Most of the squad was formed by the usual suspects, there were a couple of surprises as well. Thanks to their impressive performances in the ongoing IPL, Karun Nair and Manish Pandey were both picked for the limited-overs tour.

Nair will take no further part in the Indian Premier League 2016 as Delhi Daredevils failed to qualify for the play-offs but his performance hitherto has earned him his maiden Indian call-up.

The 24-year-old top-order batsman was Delhi’s second-leading run-scorer in IPL 2016 behind Quinton de Kock with 357 runs from 14 matches at an average of 35.70, including three half-centuries. Nair was also in decent form for Karnataka in the Ranji Trophy prior to the IPL.

The other major surprise in the squad was the inclusion of Faiz Fazal, Mandeep Singh and Jayant Yadav. The 30-year-old Fazal is the only member of the current squad without an IPL contract, but his performances in the domestic circuit over the past few months have earned him an Indian call-up.

Although he is currently in England playing league cricket, he made a century in Rest of India’s historic Irani Cup win over Mumbai, a century and a fifty in the Deodhar Trophy and averaged over 50 in the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2015-16,

While Mandeep Singh has only played one IPL this season, he was rewarded for his impressive performance in the Vijay Hazare Trophy where he finished as the leading run-getter with an average of 65 and strike rate of nearly 90. Jayant Yadav takes his place in the squad despite only making five appearances for DD in this year’s IPL.

While the initial schedule for three ODIs and a solitary Test, the schedule was revised and converted to a limited overs tour akin to India’s tour of Australia earlier in the year. All the matches will take place at Harare Sports Club, Zimbabwe.

India will begin their packed schedule with a limited-overs series in Zimbabwe, which will consist of three ODIs and three T20s. The Indian cricket team will spend a couple of weeks in Zimbabwe starting before heading to the West Indies for a four Test series.

Several senior players like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane didn’t make the cut but chairman of selectors, Sandeep Patil explained the reasoning behind the youthful nature of the squad.

"No one has been rested. No one wrote to BCCI or called us (to say) they were not available or they should be rested. It was the decision of the selection committee to pick a young side for Zimbabwe and another side for West Indies,” he said.

Before adding, "Ashish Nehra is ruled out because he is undergoing surgery for his hamstring injury, M Vijay was not fit for the Zimbabwe tour with a niggle. The report which we have got from Patrick Farhat says that he [Kohli] needs rest after IPL for his [hand] injury.”

One surprise was the exclusion of Mumbai Indian revelation Krunal Pandya. It was thought that he was on his way towards joining his brother as an Indian international. The 25-year-old all-rounder was an integral part of his team's middle order as he scored 237 runs at an average of 39.50 and a strike rate of nearly 200. Krunal also showed that he can be an useful spin option as well as he picked up six wickets in his first IPL season, to go along with his runs.

Full Squad – MS Dhoni (c)(wk), KL Rahul, Faiz Fazal, Manish Pandey, Karun Nair, Ambati Rayudu, Rishi Dhawan, Axar Patel, Jayant Yadav, Dhawal Kulkarni, Jasprit Bumrah, Barinder Sran, Mandeep Singh, Kedar Jadhav, Jaydev Unadkat, Yuzvendra Chahal