MUMBAI, (Reuters) – Sachin Tendulkar returned to the Indian one-day squad for January’s five-match series against South Africa, 11 months after scoring an unbeaten double century against the same opponents.
The 37-year-old Tendulkar, who completed his 50th test hundred on Sunday, became the first man to score a double century in one-day cricket against South Africa on Feb. 24 at Gwalior.
Since that match, Tendulkar has skipped all of India’s one-dayers and Twenty20 matches, including those in the Asia Cup and the ODI series against Australia at home, to heal niggling injuries and rest his ageing body.
The tourists named a full strength 16-member squad yesterday to be led by captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni for the single Twenty20 and five ODIs — India’s last series before the World Cup in February.
Dhoni, Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Harbhajan Singh were rested in India’s last one-day series at home against New Zealand, which the hosts swept 5-0, led by stand-in captain Gautam Gambhir.
Leg-spinner Piyush Chawla gets a chance to stake his claim before the Indian selectors pick their World Cup squad of 15, to be submitted to the International Cricket Council by Jan. 19.
Squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Praveen Kumar, Munaf Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Yusuf Pathan, Piyush Chawla, Shanthakumaran Sreesanth.