Dhawal Kulkarni in India ODI squad, Ishant dropped

Mumbai pace bowler Dhawal Kulkarni has earned a maiden national limited-overs call-up, being picked in India's 15-man squad for the one-dayers against West Indies. Ishant Sharma and Vinay Kumar, who had forgettable series against Australia last month, have been dropped.

Allrounder Ravindra Jadeja, who was rested for the preceding Test series to allow him the chance to recover from a shoulder niggle, is back. Yuvraj Singh, who also had a very poor one-day series against Australia, retains his place.

Haryana seamer Mohit Sharma, who featured in the second-string squad that played in Zimbabwe in August, has also been included. Mohit showed good touch in the first two rounds of the Ranji Trophy; he has seven wickets from two games, having extracted swing from the helpful Lahli track and claimed the prize wicket of Sachin Tendulkar in his final domestic game, as well as contributing with the bat when his team was in trouble.

Kulkarni had played in the same Lahli match and picked up three wickets. He was part of the India A squad that played New Zealand in Visakhapatnam in August-September, and claimed five wickets from two List A games there.

Ishant and Vinay were both battered during the high-scoring Australia one-dayers. While that was the case with most of the bowlers in the series, the manner in which they bowled, repeatedly erring in their lengths and lines, brought them much criticism. The duo was the most expensive among specialist bowlers from both sides, both with an economy rate a shade under eight. The lowlight for Ishant was the Mohali match, in which he was taken for 30 runs in an over by James Faulkner, with India losing the game when they looked to be on course for a victory.

In that batsman dominated series, Yuvraj produced his worst series stats in one-dayers, scoring 19 runs in four innings with a high score of 12. On comeback to the Indian team, however, in the one-off Twenty20 that was played before the ODIs, he had hit a match-winning, unbeaten 77 to propel India in a stiff chase.