Sourav Ganguly and Zaheer Khan will be seen in action in the Challenger Trophy tournament in Chennai next week. The national selectors included them in the 'India Green' and 'India Red' teams respectively.
V V S Laxman, Ashish Nehra and Laxmipathy Balaji also get a chance to prove their credentials in the three-team tournament, which has 'India Blue' as the third team.
India Blue will be led by Rahul Dravid, while Venugopal Rao and Mohammad Kaif will captain the Red and Green teams respectively.
Under-19 players Ravindra Jadeja, Tanmay Srivastav and Piyush Chawla have also been included in the teams for the domestic season curtain-raiser.
Except for Anil Kumble, who has been rested, all the 30 players in the probables' list for the ICC Champions Trophy were selected.
"Kumble has been given a rest as we want to give him some time to recover from the injury so that he can be 100 percent for the future," said chairman of selectors Kiran More, who chaired his last selection committee meeting on Tuesday.
Sachin Tendulkar, who is in the India Blue team, will miss the first match against India Red on October 1.
"Sachin will miss the first match as he has been asked to rest," More said.
Fellow-Mumbai opener Wasim Jaffer will take Tendulkar's place in the team for the first match.
"Jaffer is a Test cricketer, but we do not want to put a stamp on him. This will also be a good practice for him for the South Africa tour. Also, there is no reason why he cannot make it to the one-day side," More added.
Uttar Pradesh all-rounder Pravin Kumar was selected after a consistent showing in domestic cricket last season, while a century against the touring Western Australian team earned Karnataka's C Raghu a place in the team
"Raghu played some good knocks recently in the KCA tournament. He scored a brilliant century against the touring Western Australia team. He is an up and coming all-rounder, that's why we have given him a chance," said More.
"Pravin Kumar has been an outstanding performer for UP. He performed well in the semi-finals of the Ranji Trophy against Mumbai, and also in the final. He took 45 wickets last season and is also a hard-hitting batsman," More added.
R P Singh, who will play for Ranji champions Uttar Pradesh against Pakistan's national champions Sialkot in the Mohammad Nissar Trophy, will miss the opening match on October 1.
The Challenger Trophy matches will be telecast live on Doordarshan.
More, who completed his tenure as chairman of selectors, thanked the BCCI for their support.
"It has been a great four years for me. I really enjoyed my time as national selector.
"I wish the Indian team all the best for the future and hope they do well in the Champions Trophy and the 2007 World Cup," he said, before signing off.
Teams:
India Blue: Rahul Dravid (captain), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Mongia, Wasim Jaffer, M S Dhoni, Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Ajit Agarkar, Munaf Patel, Rudra Pratap Singh, Ravinder Jadeja. Coach: Ian Frazer
India Red: Vengupal Rao (captain), Gautam Gambhir, Robin Uthappa, S Badrinath, Rohit Sharma, T P Singh, D Karthik, V R V Singh, S Sreesanth, Ramesh Powar, Zaheer Khan, Murali Karthik, C Raghu. Coach: Robin Singh
India Green: Mohammad Kaif (captain), Sourav Ganguly, V V S Laxman, Hemang Badani, Suresh Raina, Tanmay Srivastav, Piyush Chawla, Parthiv Patel, Saurasish Lahiri, Ashish Nehra, Laxmipathy Balaji, Pravin Kumar, R S Sodhi. Coach: Lalchand Rajput.
Fixtures:
October 1: India Blue vs India Red
October 2: India Blue vs India Green
October 3: India Red vs India Green
October 4: Final
