Nagpur: Four other senior players, will miss the five-match ODI series against New Zealand as they've been given a break ahead of the South Africa tour.
Gautam Gambhir will lead the ODI team in the absence of MS Dhoni, who had said he will request the BCCI for rest after playing non-stop since the tour of Sri Lanka earlier in the year. Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan are the other players to be rested.
Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Ashish Nehra, who were part of the squad for the ODI series against Australia last month, were left out.
Wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Saha, Ravindra Jadeja, Yusuf Pathan and S Sreesanth were recalled to the ODI sqaud.
India Squad for first two ODIs: Gautam Gambhir (captain), Murali Vijay, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Sourav Tiwary, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), R Ashwin, Praveen Kumar, R Vinay Kumar, Munaf Patel, S Sreesanth, Yusuf Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja.