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Robin Uthappa replaces Gambhir

By Harish Kotian in Goa
April 03, 2006 21:40 IST

India made a solitary change to its winning combination, including right-hand Karnataka batsman Robin Uthappa in place of Gautam Gambhir, for the last four matches in the One-Day International series against England.

India lead the seven-match series 3-0.

The 15-man squad, announced after a comfortable 49-run victory in the third ODI in Goa, will also play Pakistan in the two earthquake relief one-day internationals in Abu Dhabi on April 18 and 19.

Board of Control for Cricket in India secretary Niranjan Shah said if India wins the next two ODIs against England some new players could be tried out in the last two matches.

Chairman of selectors Kiran More said Gambhir has been given a fair chance.

"His performance was not that bad; he's an outstanding player, but did not play that well in this (England) series. We'll definitely look at him in future," he added.

Asked about Sourav Ganguly returning to the squad, More replied: "The team is doing well and is 3-0 up in the series; we don't want to disturb the winning combination.

More also announced that Venugopal Rao will lead the India 'A' team in a six-nation tournament in the UAE later this month.

The other teams in the fray are: Pakistan, Sri Lanka, UAE, Holland and Ireland.

The squad for the next four ODIs against England and two ODI against Pakistan in the UAE:
Rahul Dravid (capt), Robin Uthappa, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Mohd Kaif, Suresh Raina, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Ramesh Powar, Ajit Agarkar, Munaf Patel, Venugopal Rao, S Sreesanth and R P Singh.

The India 'A' team:
Venugopal Rao (captain), Robin Uthappa, Shikhar Dhawan, Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan, S Badrinath, A Jhunjhunwalla, Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik, Ravindra Jadeja, S S Paul, Reetinder Singh Sodhi, R P Singh, V R V Singh, Piyush Chawla.

Harish Kotian in Goa

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