All-rounder Yusuf Pathan and young left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha were on Friday rewarded for their good showing in the Indian Premier League [Images] as the selectors announced a young 15-member squad for the forthcoming tri-series in Bangladesh and the Asia Cup in Pakistan.
Apart from the two new faces, the selection panel, headed by Dilip Vengsarkar, recalled seamer R P Singh, who replaces Munaf Patel [Images], a member of the squad that won the tri-series in Australia earlier this year.
Besides Patel, the selectors dropped Manoj Tiwary and Dinesh Karthik [Images] and ignored former captains Sourav Ganguly [Images] and Rahul Dravid [Images] again.
Sachin Tendulkar [Images] made himself unavailable for the two assignments as he has not recovered fully from a prolonged groin injury.
Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh [Images], the other senior member of the side, also missed out on a berth as he has been banned for five one-dayers after being found guilty of slapping national teammate S Sreesanth [Images] during an IPL match last month.
Squad: M S Dhoni [Images] (captain), Yuvraj Singh [Images] (vice-captain), Virender Sehwag [Images], Gautam Gambhir [Images], Rohit Sharma, Irfan Pathan [Images], Robin Uthappa, Suresh Raina, S Sreesanth, Yusuf Pathan, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, RP Singh, Piyush Chawla [Images], Pragyan Ojha
