India Team Squad for Oz tour of India

                                                     

Gambhir dropped for Dhawan

MS Dhoni (capt), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, M Vijay, Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, R Ashwin, Pragyan Ojha, Ashok Dinda...


Gautam Gambhir has been dropped from India's squad for the first two Tests against Australia. Two opening batsman - Tamil Nadu's M Vijay and Delhi'sShikhar Dhawan, both of whom opened the innings for Rest of India in the ongoing Irani Cup match - have been included in the squad. While Vijay was part of the squad against England, Dhawan pipped Mumbai opener Wasim Jaffer in the race for the opening role.

Harbhajan Singh, who was dropped from India's Test squad for the fourth match against England, has been included as the third spinner along with R Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha and replaces Piyush Chawla, who was dropped.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar's impressive run in the limited-overs formats has been rewarded with a Test berth. Ishant Sharma and Ashok Dinda are the other two pace-bowling options. Parwinder Awana, who was part of the squad during Tests against England, was dropped.

Ajinkya Rahane, who scored 83 in the first innings of the Irani Cup match, has retained his place in the squad while Suresh Raina's first-innings hundred and a half-century in the second innings failed to earn him a recall.

Shikhar Dhawan has scored 833 first-class runs this season at an average of 55.53, including four hundreds and three fifties. He started with two back to back hundreds, 101 against West Zone in the quarter-final of the Duleep Trophy and 121 againstCentral Zone in the semi-final. In the eight Ranji Trophy matches, he scored 524 runs, averaging 47.63 with two hundreds and two fifties. He also scored 110 for Delhi against England XI in the warm-up fixture before the ODI series.

Gambhir, meanwhile, replaced Dhawan in the India A side and will lead the team in a three-day game against Australia from February 16.