Dravid dropped, Sehwag comes back for Australia series

Chennai, Oct 15 - Former India captain Rahul Dravid was dropped while opening batsman Virender Sehwag made a comeback to the 15-member squad for the first two One-Day Internationals (ODI) of the seven-match series against Australia.

The opening match of the series will be played at Vadodara Oct 25 and Nagpur will host the second game Oct 28.

The national selection committee that met here Thursday at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium decided to call back medium pacers Munaf Patel and Sudip Tyagi in place of fast bowler Rudra Pratap Singh and spin all-rounder Yousuf Pathan. Out-of form fast bowler Ishant Sharma retained his place.

Yuvraj Singh, who is still suffering from a knee injury, has been selected and is expected to play in the first match.

"The selectors were advised that Yuvraj Singh will be fit to play on Oct 28. It is possible that he may be able to play the first match also. The decision on the playing eleven for the first match will based on Yuvraj's fitness test on Oct 25," said N. Srinivasan, secretary of the Indian cricket board.

The squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain-wicketkeeper), Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Ashish Nehra, Praveen Kumar, Ishant Shrama, Amit Mishra, Munaf Patel and Sudip Tyagi. (IANS)