New Delhi: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Sunday included Axar Patel in place of fellow left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja in the 15-man national squad for the last two One-Day Internationals (ODI) against Australia.
Jadeja had not played the first three matches of the ongoing five-match series. India have already taken an unassailable 3-0 in the series following their five-wicket win in the third ODI at Indore on Sunday.
The BCCI also decided to rest Jadeja's regular spin partner Ravichandran Ashwin and had ruled him out of the squad even before the start of the current series.
Ashwin is playing county cricket in England at present.
In the absence of the star spin pair, the young duo of left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav and leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal have given a good account of themselves against Australia.
While Kuldeep has taken seven wickets in the three matches, Chahal has scalped six.
Patel had played his last ODI against Sri Lanka in Colombo on August 31 where he had returned figures of 1/55 in his 10 overs.
The squad:
Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Lokesh Rahul, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Ajinkya Rahane, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Axar Patel.