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Uthappa and RP Singh set to play third ODI

Dravid felt that using the game to experiment with the line-up would help the side when they travel to England in June



Robin Uthappa: set for his first chance of the series in the third ODI at Chittagong © Getty Images

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Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Robin Uthappa, India's three specialist openers, have been included in the team for the third ODI against Bangladesh at Chittagong. Uthappa is set to bat at No.3, which means Sehwag, in the middle of a lean patch, will be given another go at the top.

Sehwag has not fired in the first two ODIs, each time giving away his wicket after getting off to good starts. "Robin will bat at No. 3 because soon you have the Test series and Dhoni already had to shoulder a lot of workload," Dravid told Press Trust of India. The likely person to miss out would be Dinesh Mongia, who contributed three wickets in the first one-dayer, but hasn't impressed much with the bat.

With Sreesanth injured and Zaheer Khan rested from the dead rubber Rudra Pratap Singh will finally get a game. Dravid felt that using the game to experiment with the line-up would help the side when they travel to England in June. "It will help us to be positive in the days ahead," he said. "There are tough challenges ahead of us. We will use this win as the springboard to face up to them."

Likely XI for third ODI Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Robin Uthappa, Yuvraj Singh, Rahul Dravid (capt), Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), Dinesh Karthik, Piyush Chawla, Ramesh Powar, RP Singh, Munaf Patel, Dinesh Mongia (likely 12th man)

Robin UthappaRP SinghIndiaIndia tour of Bangladesh