India received a major blow as the left arm pacer Zaheer Khan has been ruled out of the three One Day International (ODI) series against South Africa due to muscle strain.

Zaheer had sustained strain in his quadriceps while bowling on the fourth day of the second test match against South Africa at Kolkata on Wednesday. Zaheer did not play on the fifth day.

Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary N. Srinivasan informed media that S Sreesanth will replace him in the Indian squad. The first ODI will be played at Jaipur on 21st February.

Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir and Harbhajan Singh will also not play in the first two ODI of the series. Yuvraj has been left out due to wrist injury while Gambhir due to groin injury. Harbhajan has pulled out due to his sister’s marriage.

The 15-member Indian squad includes MS Dhoni (Captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Virat Kohli, Dinesh Karthik, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, S Sreesanth, Ashish Nehra, Sudeep Tyagi, Praveen Kumar, Abhishek Nayar, Yusuf Pathan and Amit Mishra.