Rahane to captain side as Dhoni, Raina and co are rested for ODI tour of African nation
India leave out star names for Zimbabwe
India will travel to Zimbabwe for their upcoming limited-overs series without a collection of their biggest names, including captain MS Dhoni and star batsman Virat Kohli.
India will play three one-day internationals and two T20 internationals in Harare starting with a 50-over clash on July 10.
Ajinkya Rahane will lead the 15-man squad in Dhoni’s absence, captaining his country for the first time alongside returning veteran Harbhajan Singh, who last played with a white ball in international cricket in September 2012.
Joining Dhoni and Kohli on the absentees list are Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Ravi Ashwin, Shikhar Dhawan and Umesh Yadav.
The Board of Cricket for Control in India also named the India A squad set to face Australia A and South Africa in July and August.
Chesteshwar Pujara will lead the team that features Test players Yadav, Pragyan Ojha and Amit Mishra and will be the first series for new coach Rahul Dravid.
Queensland batsman Usman Khawaja will captain an Australia A squad loaded with potential and including names such as Matthew Wade, Joe Burns, Patrick Cummins, Glenn Maxwell and Ashton Agar.
Australia A's two games against India A will be played in Chennai, from July 22-25 and July 29-August 1.
Quick Single: Khawaja, Cummins to star for Australia A
India squad to Zimbabwe: Ajinkya Rahane (capt), M Vijay, Ambati Rayudu, Manoj Tiwary, Kedar Jadhav, Robin Uthappa, Manish Pandey, Harbhajan Singh, Axar Patel, Karn Sharma, Dhawal Kulkarni, Stuart Binny, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohit Sharma, Sandeep Sharma
India A squad: KL Rahul, Abhinav Mukund, Cheteshwar Pujara (capt), Karun Nair, Shreyas Iyer, Naman Ojha, Vijay Shankar, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Shardul Thakur, Varun Aaron, Abhimanyu Mithun, Umesh Yadav, Shreyas Gopal, B Aparjit.
Australia A four-day squad: Usman Khawaja (c), Matthew Wade (vc), Ashton Agar, Cameron Bancroft, Joe Burns, Patrick Cummins, Andrew Fekete, Peter Handscomb, Travis Head, Nic Maddinson, Glenn Maxwell, Stephen O'Keefe, Gurinder Sandhu, Marcus Stoinis.
Australia A one-day squad: Usman Khawaja (c), Matthew Wade (vc), Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Cameron Boyce, Joe Burns, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Patrick Cummins, Callum Ferguson, Peter Handscomb, Travis Head, Chris Lynn, Gurinder Sandhu, Adam Zampa.