Yuvraj to lead BCCI President's XI against Australia

Yuvraj Singh, who was overlooked for the Rest of India squad for the Irani Trophy, will captain the Board President's XI in a four-day warm-up match against the Australians in Hyderabad, starting October 2. The squad also includes fast bowler Sreesanth, who missed the tour of Sri Lanka because of injury, and opener Wasim Jaffer, who lost his place in Test side to Gautam Gambhir. Aakash Chopra, not selected for India A's matches against Australia A, makes a comeback.

This move could mean Yuvraj's return to the Test fold. Since 2006, he has played 13 Tests - four in the last two years - and has averaged 29.42 with two centuries.

Jaffer, Ashok Dinda and Pragyan Ojha also make their way towards national reckoning since they are part of Irani Trophy and Board President's squads. Apart from Ojha, Saurashtra bowler Rakesh Dhurv is the other left-arm spinner in the squad. Dhurv took 23 wickets at 21.56 from eight Ranji Trophy games last season.

Sreesanth and Irfan Pathan will lead the bowling attack along with Manpreet Gony and Pankaj Singh.

Meanwhile Dinesh Karthik has fallen off the national radar by neither making it to the Board President's squad nor the India A squad for the two Tests against New Zealand. Wriddhiman Saha, the Bengal wicketkeeper, has made the cut instead. Suresh Raina will lead the India A side now that S Badrinath has been called up to the Rest of India squad as a replacement for Sachin Tendulkar. Jaydev Shah, the Saurashtra captain, has been picked as Raina's deputy after a successful series in Israel.

Board President's squad : Yuvraj Singh (capt), S Badrinath, Wasim Jaffer, Aakash Chopra, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli Parthiv Patel (wk), Irfan Pathan, S Sreesanth, Piyush Chawla, Pragyan Ojha, Pankaj Singh, Manpreet Gony, Yogesh Takawale, Rakesh Dhurv.

India A : Suresh Raina (capt) Jaydev Shah, M Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Sahil Kukreja, Cheteshwar Pujara, Yusuf Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja, Wriddhiman Saha, Ashok Dinda, Dhawal Kulkarni, Sudeep Tyagi, Amit Mishra, Pradeep Sangwan, Mohnish Parmar.
Source: http://content-usa.cricinfo.com

BCCI happy over ICC awards to Dhoni, Yuvraj:

Mumbai (PTI): The BCCI on Thursday expressed happiness over the ICC annual awards won by Indian players Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh while adding it expected Ishant Sharma too to join the ranks of the award winners.

"We are happy that two Indian players received the ICC's annual awards, particularly Mahendra Singh Dhoni who had an outstanding season. We thought that probably (young pacer) Ishant Sharma would also get the Emerging Player honour, but it did not happen," said BCCI's CAO Ratnakar Shetty.

Dhoni was named the ODI Player of the Year and Yuvraj won the Twenty20 International Performance of the Year Award. Dhoni beat back tough competition from team-mate Sachin Tendulkar, Australian fast bowler Nathan Bracken and Pakistan stalwart Mohammad Yousuf to take the prestigious award.

During the voting period, the swashbuckling wicket keeper-batsman played 39 ODIs and scored 1,298 runs at an average of 49.92 and at a strike rate of 82.46. He also hit a century and nine fifties.

Yuvraj was deservedly honoured for his stupendous six sixes in an over off England pacer Stuart Broad in the inaugural Twenty20 World Championship won by India in South Africa last year.

But the gangling Sharma lost out to Sri Lanka's spin sensation Ajantha Mendis who bagged the Emerging Player honour at the annual ICC awards function held in Dubai.