India has selected experienced Dinesh Karthik ahead of young Rishabh Pant for the spot of second wicketkeeper-batsman in their one-day international squad for their matches against Australia and New Zealand.
Pant, 21, was the backup to former captain and regular stumper Mahendra Singh Dhoni during India's home five-match series against West Indies.
Pant played three of the five matches as a specialist batsman and scored 17 and 24 in the second and third ODIs.
Karthik, 33, has played 86 ODIs and was part of India's Asia Cup squad but was left out for the West Indies matches.
Karthik was inconsistent and could not convert starts into big scores at the Asia Cup and finished with a total of 146 in six matches, missing the opportunity to secure the number four spot India have been looking to fill ahead of the 50-over World Cup next year.
But Karthik could well have sealed the spot with captain Virat Kohli and coach Ravi Shastri confirming recently that India's period of experimenting with their ODI side is over with five months left before the World Cup in England.
After the conclusion of the ongoing four-test series against Australia, India will play a three-match one-day international series in January.
That will be followed by a five-match ODI series in New Zealand before India return home for another five-match ODI series against Australia.
Manish Pandey, who has also auditioned for the middle-order spots, was also axed from the ODI squad after warming the bench against West Indies.
With the return of frontline seamers Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav found himself out of favour.
Mohammed Shami and Khaleel Ahmed were the other quicks in the squad while all-rounder Hardik Pandya also returned to the squad after recovering from injury.
Squad: Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma, Lokesh Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Ambati Rayudu, Dinesh Karthik, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni (wicketkeeper), Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Khaleel Ahmed, Mohammed Shami.
