Indian batting superstar Sachin Tendulkar has opted out of the three-Test series in the West Indies starting next month, it was announced on Friday. Tendulkar, the world's leading scorer in both Test and one-day cricket, is on 99 international centuries but will now have to wait for a chance to hit his 100th. He was earlier rested for five one-dayers in the Caribbean.
"Tendulkar requested that he be allowed to spend time with his family. He will therefore not play the Test series," Indian cricket board secretary N. Srinivasan said in a statement. "However, he will be available for the full tour of England that follows."
India open the tour with the Twenty20 game in Trinidad on June 4, followed by one-dayers and Tests. Gambhir and Yuvraj are among six regular players out of the one-day series, the others being Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Zaheer Khan.
India Test squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Venkatsai Laxman (vice-capt), Murali Vijay, Abhinav Mukund, Rahul Dravid, Virat Kohli, Subramaniam Badrinath, Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, Suresh Raina, Parthiv Patel. T20 and one-day squad: Suresh Raina (capt), Harbhajan Singh (vice-capt), Parthiv Patel, Virat Kohli, Subramaniam Badrinath, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Manoj Tiwary, Ravichandran Ashwin, Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel, Vinay Kumar, Yusuf Pathan, Amit Mishra, Wriddhiman Saha.