After a gap of six years, Gujarat based cricket star Parthiv Patel has been included in Indian Cricket tram for for the last two One-day Internationals against New Zealand. Wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel will replace Wriddhiman Saha.

The senior selection committee that met Thursday also decided to include Parthiv and fast bowling spearhead Zaheer Khan for the rest of the series. Zaheer missed the third Test and the first two ODIs with a groin strain. Praveen Kumar, who missed the first two ODIs because of a fever, also made a comeback.

The Indian selectors also decided to give some rest to batsman Suresh Raina and fast bowler Sreesanth. The two players will be flying to South Africa early before the Test series that starts December 16.

Mumbai batsman Rohit Sharma, who was dropped after the tri-series in Sri Lanka in August, also makes a comeback, but only for the fourth and the fifth ODI. Since Rohit is playing in a Ranji Trophy game against Gujarat in Valsad, he would not play in the third ODI that would be held in Vadodara, Dec 4.

Medium-pacer R.Vinay Kumar will be released from the team after the third ODI for Karnataka’s Ranji Trophy matches.

Teams:
For 3rd ODI: Gautam Gambhir (captain), Murali Vijay, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Sourav Tiwary, Yusuf Pathan, Wriddhiman Saha (wicketkeeper), Ravichandran Ashwin, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Praveen Kumar, Munaf Patel, Ravindra Jadeja and R. Vinay Kumar

For 4th and 5th ODIs: Gautam Gambhir (captain), Murali Vijay, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Sourav Tiwary, Yusuf Pathan, Parthiv Patel (wicketkeeper), R.Ashwin, Ashish Nehra, Munaf Patel, Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar, Ravindra Jadeja, Rohit Sharma

About Parthiv Patel

Parthiv Ajay Patel (born 9 March 1985 in Ahmedabad, Gujarat) is an Indian cricketer, wicketkeeper-batsman, and former member of the Indian national cricket team. He is a left-handed batsman and is of a very short stature at 160 cm. He made his Test debut in 2002 in the 2nd Test against England at Nottingham after Ajay Ratra was injured, becoming the youngest wicket-keeper in Test history at 17 years 152 days, eclipsing the previous record of Pakistan’s Hanif Mohammad (which stood at 17 years 300 days since 1952), despite still not having played in any domestic first-class matches. He was dismissed for a duck in the first innings but batted for over an hour on the last day to help prevent an English victory. Patel made his ODI debut against New Zealand in January 2003 . He was selected in the Indian squad for the 2003 Cricket World Cup but did not play any games, with Rahul Dravid being used as a make-shift wicket-keeper to allow the use of an extra batsman or bowler. With this policy in place, Patel only made intermittent appearances in ODIs, usually when Dravid was injured or being rested (in full or from wicket-keeping duties). He played 13 ODIs in a two year span, and during an interrupted career managed only an average of 14.66 and a top-score of 28.