India's cricket selectors on Thursday left out star spinner Harbhajan Singh for the first two One-day internationals of next month's home series against England. The seasoned off-spinner's absence further weakens the injury-ravaged world champions, who picked three rookies in a new-look 15-man squad for the first two matches in Hyderabad on October 14 and New Delhi on October 17. Harbhajan, 31, paid the price for a poor Test series in England.
He bagged just two wickets in as many Tests at an average of 143.50 before heading home with an abdominal strain. Missing are batting stars Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh, three frontline seamers - Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel and Shanthakumaran Sreesanth - and Harbhajan.
India's one-day squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Gautam Gambhir, Parthiv Patel, Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli, Manoj Tiwary, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Rahul Sharma, Varun Aaron, Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar, Sreenath Aravind, Praveen Kumar.