Team to be announced today for tri-series, Champions Trophy

The Indian selectors of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) are meeting in Chennai on Sunday to pick up the 15-member squad for the ODI tri-series in Sri Lanka and the Champions Trophy. Skipper MS Dhoni will attend the meeting whereas Coach Gary Kirsten will be connected via phone from South Africa.

The triangular ODI series will be held in Sri Lanka from September 8-14, and subsequently the Champions Trophy tournament in South Africa from September 22- October 5.

While it is almost clear that explosive batsman Virendar Sehwag will be out of both the tournaments owing to his right shoulder injury, it could be the moment of truth for the former Indian captain Rahul Dravid, The Wall. The 36-year-old is all set to make a comeback to the ODI team after a gap of nearly two years. Dravid had played the last ODI in October 2007.

Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar is also making a comeback. He had made himself unavailable for the four-match ODI series in the West Indies in June-July. Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir will open the batting with Rahul Dravid likely to be coming in at No. 3.

Rohit Sharma may be out of the contention following patchy performances in the World T20 and the West Indies series. Abhishek Nayar and Virat Kohli may be likely probabilities. Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan and Dinesh Karthik are among the certainties.

In absence of the paceman Zaheer Khan, who is also to be ruled out for a shoulder surgery, Ashish Nehra is certainly to partner Ishant Sharma as the new ball pair, besides R P Singh and Munaf Patel. The two spinners could be Harbhajan Singh and Pragyan Ojha.

Before flying to Colombo, the selected players will have a four-day training camp in Bangalore from August 27 and will participate in Corporate Trophy.

Likely squad: Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni (skipper/wicketkeeper), Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, RP Singh, Ishant Sharma, Ashish Nehra, Amit Mishra (Pragyan Ojha), Praveen Kumar (Munaf Patel), Dinesh Karthik, Abhishek Nayar.