Sachin Tendulkar

Calcutta: Sachin Tendulkar will make a return to the one-day fold after a gap of eight months as he was named on Thursday in India’s squad for the next two matches in the seven-match ODI series against England.

Pacer Rudra Pratap Singh made way for Baroda pacer Irfan Pathan’s return to the squad. Tendulkar replaced Tamil Nadu opener Murali Vijay.

The Telegraph had reported in Thursday's edition that the national selectors will pick the squad for the next two ODIs only. It was also reported that Tendulkar will return in place of Vijay while RP was under pressure to lose his spot to Irfan.

The national selection committee, headed by former captain Krishnamachari Srikkanth, met soon after the completion of third match here and decided to make two changes in the 15-member squad.

Batting maestro Tendulkar, who last played for India in ODIs against Australia in Brisbane in March 2008, had been rested for the first three matches of the series.

Irfan was rewarded with a berth for his consistent performance in domestic cricket in the last few months. The Baroda cricketer had last played a ODI game against Sri Lanka in August.

The fourth match of the series will be played in Bangalore on Sunday while Cuttack will host the fifth match on November 26. India are currently leading the seven match series 3-0.

The national selectors will meet again in Cuttack to pick the team for the last two ODIs.

Although the selectors were supposed to announce the team for the remaining four matches of the series, they chose to name the squad for the next two matches. In case India manage to clinch the series in the next two matches, the selectors may probably rest some of the senior players and try out a few youngsters.

The squad

M.S. Dhoni (capt.), Virender Sehwag (vice-capt.), Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Harbhajan Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Pragyan Ojha, Zaheer Khan, Irfan Pathan, Munaf Patel, Ishant Sharma