Tendulkar to play for India Seniors

Sachin Tendulkar, the Indian batsman, has been given the all-clear to return to action in the upcoming Challenger Series beginning on October 10. Anil Kumble, the legspinner, and Ashish Nehra, the left-arm swing bowler, have been rested and will not take part in the tournament.

Sourav Ganguly was appointed as the captain of the India Seniors side while VVS Laxman and Dinesh Mongia will lead the India A and B sides respectively. Unlike in earlier seasons, when the selectors distributed the international players into the three different teams so as to make it an even contest, the seniors side picked was packed with stars while the India B side was filled with players from the fringes. The selectors also decided to blood Under-19 stars like Manoj Tiwari and Piyush Chawla after impressive performances last season.

Sachin Tendulkar, who is returning from a long lay-off caused by a tennis elbow and subsequent surgery, has been named in the India Seniors team. The injury forced him to pull out of the Super Series against Australia, where he had been selected to play in both the Test and ODI squads. However, John Gloster, the Indian physiotherapist who has managed Tendulkar's recovery, told the selectors he (Tendulkar) was ready to start playing again.

"Tendulkar is playing in the Challenger Series," said Kiran More, the chairman of the national selection committee. "I also spoke to John Gloster, who said he can play." Tendulkar said he was delighted to be able to play again: "I have been wanting to get into action at the earliest and test the strength of my elbow."

Teams:
India Senior:
Sourav Ganguly (capt), Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Y Venugopal Rao, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), Harbhajan Singh, Murali Kartik, Irfan Pathan, Ajit Agarkar, Zaheer Khan, JP Yadav, Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan

India A:
VVS Laxman (capt), Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Hemang Badani, Niraj Patel, Dheeraj Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Ramesh Powar, Rudra Pratap Singh, Laxmipathy Balaji, VRV Singh, Shahbaz Nadeem, Manoj Tiwari

India B:
Dinesh Mongia (capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Robin Utthappa, Sridharan Sriram, Sunny Singh, Satyajit Parab, Parthiv Patel (wk), S Sree Santh, Ranadeb Bose, Amit Bhandari, Ravikant Shukla, Piyush Chawla, Sreekumar Nair