Harbhajan Left Out As India Name ODI Squad

Harbhajan Left Out As India Name ODI Squad

Harbhajan Singh has been left out of India's ODI squad

©REUTERS / Action Images

India have named a 15-man squad to play England in the first two One-Day Internationals in October, leaving out experienced off-spinner Harbhajan Singh.

Zaheer Khan, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, Rohit Sharma, Munaf Patel and Ishant Sharma are also absent through injury so the selectors have handed a first call-up to leg-spinner Rahul Sharma.

Uncapped pacers Varun Aaron and Sreenath Aravind are also included. Aravind is a left-arm seamer who has played for Karnataka since 2009 and the Royal Challengers Bangalore since 2010.

Umesh Yadav, who played three matches for India in Zimbabwe in 2010, is also included as the selectors aim to begin the rebuilding process following the tour of England in which India failed to win an international match, losing the ODI series 3-0 with only one tied result to show for their efforts.

They were badly hampered by an unprecedented string of injuries and with the home series following on quickly, are still unable to pick their best side.

They are able to welcome back left-hand batsman Gautam Gambhir, who suffered concussion during the tour of England and left the tour early but has since returned to action with the Kolkata Knight Riders in the Champions League Twenty20.

England have their own injury worries as batsman Eoin Morgan as well as all-rounder and Twenty20 captain Stuart Broad will miss the ODI series with Broad a doubt for the Twenty20 International in Kolkata on 29th October.

The first two ODIs are to be held in Hyderabad and Delhi on 14th and 17th October as India begin their first home series since winning the World Cup on home soil in April.

India ODI squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Varun Aaron, Ravichandran Ashwin, Sreenath Aravind, Gautam Gambhir, Ravindra Jadeja, Virat Kohli, Praveen Kumar, Parthiv Patel, Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh Raina, Rahul Sharma, Manoj Tiwary, Ranganath Vinay Kumar, Umesh Yadav

© Cricket World 2011