Bhajji Dropped for First Two England ODIs

Chennai: Off-colour Harbhajan Singh was on Thursday dropped while young spinner Rahul Sharma and paceman Sreenath Aravind were the two new faces in India's depleted 15-member squad for the first two one-dayers in next month's ODI series against England.

Gautam Gambhir, who missed the ODI series in the tour of England because of concussion, returned to the squad which will be without the services of a host of seniors, including Sachin Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan, Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh because of injuries.

Vidharba paceman Umesh Yadav and Jharkhand speedster Varun Aaron also figured in the team announced by new BCCI secretary Sanjay Jagdale after a marathon meeting of the selection committee.

The team, to be captained by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, has a predominantly young bowling attack with Praveen Kumar being the spearhead.

The national selectors have picked as many as five fast bowlers and three spinners in Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin and Sharma.

Parthiv Patel, who did reasonably well in the recent ODI series against England, has been retained along with upcoming batsman Ajinkya Rahane of Mumbai.

The first ODI of the five-match series will be played in Hyderabad on October 14,, while Delhi will host the second game on October 17.

India squad for 1st & 2nd ODI:

Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain & wk)
Gautam Gambhir
Parthiv Patel (wk)
Ajinkya Rahane
Virat Kohli
Suresh Raina
Ravindra Jadeja
R Ashwin
Manoj Tiwary
Praveen Kumar
Varun Aaron
Umesh Yadav
R Vinay Kumar
Sreenath Aravind
Rahul Sharma

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No games being played at this time. 3rd ODI - Zimbabwe v Afghanistan - December 21, 07:30 GMT 3rd ODI - South Africa v Pakistan - December 22, 12:00 GMT 3rd T20I - West Indies v Bangladesh at St Vincent Bangladesh won by 80 runs 2nd ODI - South Africa v Pakistan at Cape Town Pakistan won by 81 runs

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