5 Surprise picks in the Indian ODI squad for the series against New Zealand

2. Mandeep Singh:

Unlike Raina, Mandeep Singh is currently in a rich vein of form. Singh made his debut for India earlier this year against Zimbabwe in the T20I series and returned with scores of 31, 52 and 4 opening with KL Rahul. The Punjab opener also churned out runs in the recent India A tour in the quadrangular series against Australia A, National Performance squad, and South Africa.

He along with Manish Pandey were the key batsmen for India A. Singh, opened the innings in al the match and accumulated 198 runs in 6 match at an average of 33 including a 95 which set up the title win for India A.

All these numbers are good but it was an anticipated that his fellow India A teammate, Karun Nair, who was recently called into the test squad as a backup for Shikhar Dhawan would make the cut. But, it seems that the new selection panel has decided to reward his consistency.