Ajinkya Rahane admitted he was stunned to be named India captain for the upcoming Zimbabwe series after being dropped from the team just a week earlier.

The Mumbai batsman, who averages a tad over 30 in One-day internationals, played the first of India's three-match ODI series against Bangladesh at Mirpur and scored nine off 25 balls as they went down by 79 runs.

He was dropped for the next two matches, with regular captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni saying the 27-year-old's batting was more suited to pitches offering more pace.

But that did not stop India's selectors from putting him in charge of a second-string squad for this month's tour of Zimbabwe, which comprises three ODIs and two Twenty20 internationals, and resting Dhoni and a host of other senior cricketers.

"The decision of naming me captain did come as a surprise, because I wasn't thinking about captaincy ever," Rahane, who has played 55 ODIs, told the Board of Control for Cricket in India's website (BCCI.TV).

"I didn't know how to react when I heard the news.

"Once the news slowly began to sink in, I became really confident of handling this new responsibility," he added.

The 2-1 ODI series defeat was India's first to Bangladesh, and another loss against Zimbabwe will not go down well with the country's cricket-crazy fans despite the lack of senior players in the touring party.