There is no place for either Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh in India’s 15-man squad for the Champions Trophy.

Experienced batsman Gambhir has been omitted in favour of left-handed opener Shikhar Dhawan, who last played a 50-over match for India in June 2011.

Yuvraj, meanwhile, who made a fairytale comeback last year after battling a rare form of lung cancer, has been overlooked with selectors preferring right-handed batsman Rohit Sharma.

Other surprise inclusion sees opener Murali Vijay given the nod despite his last outing coming against South Africa back in January 2011 and failing to score a fifty in his 11 matches in the format.

Wicket-keeper batsman Dinesh Karthik has earned recall after almost three years on the sidelines while all-rounder Irfan Pathan also returned to the fold.

Fast bowler Umesh Yadav returned from his back injury while off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and leg-spinner Amit Mishra were the two specialist slow bowlers in the squad.

India, the reigning 50-over world champions, are in Group B and will play the opening match of the June 6-23 tournament against South Africa in Cardiff. Pakistan and West Indies are the other teams in the group.

India squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Dinesh Karthik, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Amit Mishra, Irfan Pathan, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma, R. Vinay Kumar.

 

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