Yuvraj, Karthik, Badrinath to lead Challenger side

Yuvraj Singh and Dinesh Karthik will lead India Blue and India Red respectively, while India Green will be captained by Subramanium Badrinath when Airtel Challenger Series for NKP Salve Trophy commences in Indore from October 8-11.

Senior national selection committee led by Krishnamachari Srikkanth on Tuesday decided to give some of the tried and tested faces another lifeline as the senior national team will embark on a long international season with the focus on next year's World Cup to be staged in the sub-continent.

Some of the youngsters will also get a chance to showcase their talent, which could catapult them to the big league.

Dashing Karnataka batsman Robin Uthappa, Uttar Pradesh left-arm seamer Rudra Pratap Singh, all-rounder Irfan Pathan are some of the players who would be eager to make a mark and get back into the national fold.

Irfan's elder brother Yusuf, who last played an ODI against Sri Lanka at Harare, will also get a chance to show his big-hitting prowess.

Similarly, former India U-19 wicketkeeper Srivats Goswami, Karnataka batsman Ganesh Sathish, Punjab leg-spinners Sarabjit Ladda and Rahul Sharma have been rewarded for some good performance at the domestic level.

Talented Hyderabad batsman Ambati Rayudu, who went into oblivion after his two-season stint with the unofficial Indian Cricket League (ICL), is also back in the mix in the wake of some strong performance for Mumbai Indians in the IPL and Champions League Twenty20.

Rayudu's former ICL colleague, Madhya Pradesh opener Mohnish Mishra has also been rewarded with a call-up in the India 'Red' side.

Squads:
India Blue: Yuvraj Singh (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Srivats Goswami, Ajinkya Rahane, Manoj Tiwary, Irfan Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja, Wriddhiman Saha, Piyush Chawla, Umesh Yadav, R P Singh, Yo Mahesh, Ganesh Satish, Tanmay Srivastava.

India Red: Dinesh Kartik (c), Abhinav Mukund, Parthiv Patel, Manish Pandey, Virat Kohli, Saurabh Tiwary, Yusuf Pathan, Iqbal Abdulla, R Vinay Kumar, Ashok Dinda, Sudeep Tyagi, Mohnish Mishra, Abu Nachim Ahmed, Rahul Sharma.

India Green: S Badrinath (c), Naman Ojha, Srikkanth Aniruddha, Rohit Sharma, Robin Uthappa, Kedar Jadhav, R Ashwin, Jaskaran Singh, Abhimanyu Mithun, Jaydev Unadkat, Sarabjit Ladda, T Suman, Dhawal Kulkarni, Ambati Rayudu.