Shikhar Dhawan not included for last two ODIs; Axar Patel replaces Ravindra Jadeja

Prior to the start of the five-match series, the national selectors had named a 16-man squad for the first three games. But Shikhar Dhawan was released from the squad to be with his wife during a surgery she was scheduled to undergo and later Axar Patel also sprained his ankle while playing football during a team training session and was ruled out of the squad.

While no replacement was named for Dhawan then, Jadeja was drafted in as filler for Axar, but with the latter training with the Indian team for the past couple of days in Indore and showing no signs of discomfort, he was included to replace the senior spinner. 

In the spin department, wrist spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal have performed beautifully in the first three games, picking up seven and six wickets respectively, while Hardik Pandya led the run-scoring charts with 181 runs and five wickets.

Yesterday, with a five-wicket victory, the hosts took an unassailable 3-0 lead in the series, and now the jamboree moves to the garden city of Bangalore for the fourth ODI on Thursday, followed by the final game in Nagpur on October 1. The two teams will then play three T20Is, in Ranchi, Guwahati and Hyderabad after the conclusion of the ODI series.

Squad: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Ajinkya Rahane, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Axar Patel.

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