The Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) on Thursday named 15-man squad for the first two one-day internationals of five-match home series against England, starting from October 14.

Seven players, including star names Sachin Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan Virender Sehwag, and Yuvraj Singh are missing with injuries sustained on the recent tour of England.

Gautam Gambhir, who missed the ODI series in England because of a head injury, also returned to the team.

Harbhajan Singh dropped from squad

While veteran off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, who was also included in the list of injured players who returned to home leaving England tour in full swing, has been dropped from the squad.

Uncapped seamer Varun Aaron retained the trust of selectors. He was the part of ODI series against England, but was not given the opportunity to make his first international appearance.

Two new faces added in squad

The two other new faces added in the squad are left-arm seamer Sreenath Aravind and leg-spinner Rahul Sharma, who both showed impressive performances consistently in this year’s domestic season.

The squad for the remaining three matches will be announced at a later date to give some of those stars the opportunity to prove their fitness.

India Squad:

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