The 29-year-old had played for Mumbai at the Under-14, Under-19 and Under-22 levels and was also in the Ranji Trophy squad then led by Sachin Tendulkar but could not force his way in.
India would be aiming to seal the series with yet another resounding performance against a below-par West Indies.
Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com looks on the lighter side of things after India beat Pakistan in Adelaide for their sixth straight win over their arch rivals in a World Cup clash.
Premier off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin will be in focus alongside speedster Mohammed Shami when defending champions India take on New Zealand on Sunday in their opening warm-up game ahead of the Champions Trophy in London.
Limited over captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni will be eager to regain his golden touch even as Virat Kohli eyes another smashing knock at his home ground when favourites India lock horns with New Zealand in the second ODI in New Delhi on Thursday. It may be just another ODI in a bilateral series, but there is lot at stake for Dhoni, who has been under pressure after Test skipper Virat Kohli led India to the number one ranking following a 3-0 whitewash.
A win on Friday would seal the three-match series for Virat Kohli and Co.
Terming India's prospects as very strong in the 2015 World Cup, former Australia captain Allan Border opined that Team India do have the "skills to match the best sides in the world but they will certainly have to have more "attitude" and "self belief" to make a mark in Australia and New Zealand.
India will have their task cut out against a vastly improved England
The games will mark the onset of a long summer for the Indian team, with sterner tests against England to follow this short series in Malahide on the outskirts of Dublin.
India's captain feels the roller-coaster ride he witnessed all these years makes cricket a "great leveller".
Bouyed by the vociferous fans, the Indian cricket team is in form.
Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni was all praise for his bowlers after the Men in Blue earned a hard-fought win at the WACA against the West Indies in their Pool B encounter, to move into the quarter-finals of the cricket World Cup, on Friday.
As India broke a long-standing World Cup jinx against South Africa in Melbourne, appreciation and congratulatory messages poured in from the cricket fraternity which hailed the team's "terrific" all-round performance in front of a packed MCG.
Indian automobile units are employing more and more robots to improve your car's efficiency. India is catching up well as world over, the latest technologies is redefining outdated manufacturing processes.
India will be looking for resurrection against Afghanistan.
Sachin Tendulkar believes the upcoming 50-over World Cup will be different from its past editions because of changes in rules and the advent of Twenty20 cricket.
Having suffered a minor setback in the previous game, India will look to recover and close out this eight-week long tour with a series win.
India are poised for their third T20 International series triumph in five years but would be wary of a strong fightback from the usually plucky New Zealand when the two sides clash in the second game of the three-match series in Rajkot.
Former India captain Sourav Ganguly turns 44, on Friday, as wishes from the cricketing fraternity all over the world poured in on social media.
Unlike in the T20I series, England do not have the option of battling this phenomenon with a practice outing against the spin-bowling machine, Merlyn. With both teams travelling to London on Friday, there might not even be enough time to sit down for some video analysis. In that light, the English batsmen will have to contend mentally with how to play Yadav on Saturday.
'The players are playing the situation, whatever the teams need at that time. Players are professionals, so they tend to mould into that situation rather than thinking too much about who we are playing. It's a ball and bat and you just want to perform with those.'
South Africa clinched the Twenty20 series with a comfortable six-wicket win over a lacklustre India in the second match, which was marred by shameful and unruly crowd behaviour at the Barabati stadium in Cuttack.
"I have had a very good Ranji season this year. If you talk about T20 then I have had a very good IPL season for KKR. I am bowling well, letting down 9-10 overs in every match (Vijay Hazare), so things are moving in the right direction. Wickets are coming my way and I am also getting runs, when I am batting.
The key player from Pakistan, says former India captain Rahul Dravid, is Mohammad Irfan. 'Having watched him bowl just recently, I believe he is going to pose a challenge to the Indian batsmen.'
The Men in Blue won the first T20I at Johannesburg by 28 runs and a victory on Wednesday will see them wrap up another series win on this tour.
India's premier off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin said that "under favourable conditions", the hosts will be a "hard side to beat" in the ongoing World T20. India lost to New Zealand on a turner in the opening game but beat Pakistan easily in their next game on a similar surface. "I think, we are a very good team. On our day and unde conditions favourable for us, we are going to be a pretty hard side to beat," Ashwin told bcci.tv after the team's six wicket win over Pakistan. But as exception proves the rule, it can happen with 'Men In Blue' too. "There will be exceptions. We lost a recent game in Pune against Sri Lanka and another one in Nagpur against New Zealand. On both occasions, the opposition read the game better than us," said Ashwin. Ashwin, who is known to to be a thinking cricketer, said that even though there was much turn on offer at the Eden Gardens, it wasn't as easy as it seemed.
South Africa woefully struggled to get their act right in the matches gone by.
With an unassailable 3-0 lead in hand, India need just one more win to claim their maiden ODI series triumph on South African soil.
Taking note of the fatigue factor, India are likely field a second string team for the forthcoming limited overs tour of Zimbabwe next month.
While the world has been talking about Mahendra Singh Dhoni's elevation up the order, opener Shikhar Dhawan reckons that the move is not only an advantage to the line-up, but it gives him the confidence while batting.
Jolted by the loss to Australia in their opening match, India will look to plug its bowling loopholes and ensure a stronger batting display when they take on England in their second ODI tri-series match in Brisbane on Tuesday. Both sides will be looking to register their first victory in the tournament, the hosts having stolen a march on them with two successive wins.
Their bowling frailties thoroughly exposed in the first two ODIs, India are left with no option but to bank heavily on their batsmen to steer the side and upstage the rampaging Australians in the must-win third one-dayer in Melbourne.
Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni made no excuses for India's 95-run loss to Australia in the World Cup semi-finals but said the fast bowlers could have done "slightly better" and Shikhar Dhawan should not have attempted a big shot when they were going smoothly.
The No. 4 slot is considered the most vital position for any successful ODI side, yet India are struggling to find a solution to their revolving door conundrum for some time now.
It was after many years that an Indian cricket team lived up to expectations outside the sub-continent.
Mohammad Shami and Umesh Yadav's "mature performance" in the ongoing cricket World Cup, former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar feels the duo are on the path to become "world-class" bowlers and have been the key to India's success in the tournament.
Batting has been South Africa's 'Achilles' heel' during the ongoing series against India
Good times are here for the Men in Blue! Their dominating performance against England coupled with Australia's shock loss to Zimbabwe made India the sole No 1 team in the latest ICC ODI rankings issued in Dubai.
Notwithstanding India's good showing en route to the 2003 World Cup final, former batsman Damien Martyn said that it was Australia's 'self-belief' that helped them in outplaying the Sourav Ganguly-led side in the title clash.
Kohli promoting Pandya ahead of Dhoni is an indication that the skipper is looking to use his former captain more as an accumulator -- in Javed Miandad mould who would rotate strike, frustrate bowlers and launch a furious counter-attack after getting his eye in.
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