Gautam Gambhir will captain India against New Zealand in the first two one-day internationals in the absence of injured regular skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
"M.S. Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh were not considered due to injury concerns, which require attention and rehabilitation," the Board of Control of Cricket in India said in a statement on Saturday.
The one-day series against New Zealand starts on Nov. 28 in the north-eastern city of Guwahati. The other matches will be at Jaipur (Dec. 1), Vadodara (Dec. 4), Bangalore (Dec. 7) and Chennai (Dec. 10).
Wriddhiman Saha, who has played a solitary test for India this year, will be the wicketkeeper for the two one-day matches and also the backup gloveman for captain Dhoni on a tour of South Africa for a test series starting next month.
All five senior players unavailable for the one-dayers are in the 17-man test squad to meet the Proteas, including premier fast bowler Zaheer Khan, who is missing the current third test against New Zealand because of a groin strain.
India will play South Africa at Centurion (from Dec. 16), Durban (from Dec. 26) and Cape Town (from Jan. 2).
The tests will be followed by a Twenty20 and five limited-overs matches.
---
India ODI squad vs. New Zealand: Gautam Gambhir (captain), Murali Vijay, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Saurabh Tiwary, Wriddhiman Saha, R. Ashwin, Praveen Kumar. R. Vinay Kumar, Munaf Patel, Shantakumaran Sreesanth, Yusuf Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja.
India test squad vs. South Africa: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Shantakumaran Sreesanth, Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Wriddhiman Saha, Jaydev Unadkat, Umesh Yadav, Pragyan Ojha.
Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.