India retain squad for rest of the series

Fast bowler Ishant Sharma retained his place for the remaining four ODIs as the BCCI tweeted an unchanged squad for the ongoing series against Australia after India lost two of the first three matches.

Ishant finished with figures of 1 for 63 from eight overs in the third ODI after conceding 30 runs in an over which turned the match in Australia's favour. In the first two ODIs too, his economy rate was eight and 7.77 runs per over respectively. India's pace attack, particularly in the death overs, has been a cause of concern for a while now and captain MS Dhoni admitted after the third ODI that the death bowling had become a "headache".

Apart from Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who has kept his economy rate under six in all three matches so far, the two other pacers India have bowled with - Ishant and Vinay Kumar - have been unimpressive as India conceded more than 300 in all three ODIs.

The other pace options in the squad are Mohammed Shami and Jaydev Unadkat, who have not been given a chance in the series yet. Unadkat and Shami were among the top three wicket-takers in the five-match ODI series against Zimbabwe in August as they finished with eight and six wickets, respectively, behind Amit Mishra, who hasn't played in the ongoing series yet, who took 18 wickets.

Squad: MS Dhoni (capt.), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Vinay Kumar, Amit Mishra, Ambati Rayudu, Mohammed Shami, Jaydev Unadkat