India squad for first two England ODIs omits Harbhajan

Harbhajan took two wickets in two Tests in England and returned home injured

India have named a 15-man squad for the first two games of their one-day international series against England, which starts on 14 October.

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

Gautam Gambhir returns after missing the ODIs in England with concussion.

But there is no place for fit-again spinner Harbhajan Singh.

Harbhajan was one of several players to return early from England with injury, but had been in disappointing form in the first two Tests, only taking one wicket in each game before succumbing to a stomach strain, although he recently returned to action to captain Mumbai Indians in the Champions League Twenty20.

Leg-spinner Amit Mishra has also been dropped, with slow left-armer Ravindra Jadeja and off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin the senior front-line spinners in the squad, while veteran batsman Rahul Dravid has retired from ODIs.

As well as front-line batsmen Tendulkar, Sehwag and Yuvraj, and new-ball bowler Zaheer, injuries from the troubled tour of England - in which India were beaten 4-0 in the Test series and 3-0 in the ODIs, failing to win a single international match - have robbed India of the services of batsman Rohit Sharma and seamers Ishant Sharma and Munaf Patel.

However, some of the younger players summoned to England as injury replacements - batsmen Ajinkya Rahane and Manoj Tiwary, and seamer Varun Aaron - keep their places in the squad, while paceman Umesh Yadav is recalled more than a year after his last international appearance.

Aaron, left-arm seamer Sreenath Aravind and leg-spinner Rahul Sharma are the three uncapped players in skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni's squad.

England arrive in India on 4 October and will play five ODIs and a Twenty20 international.

India squad for first two one-day internationals: Mahendra Dhoni (capt & wk), Gautam Gambhir, Parthiv Patel (wk), Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Varun Aaron, Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar, Sreenath Aravind, Rahul Sharma, Manoj Tiwary, Praveen Kumar.