The aggressive youngster Virat Kohli has been named as replacement for the injured Indian opener Gautam Gambhir for the ODI tri-series in Sri Lanka as reported by officials of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Thursday.

Gambhir strained his groin muscle due to which he has been ruled out of the tri-series. He will fly back from Colombo to take rest for at least 10 days. This injury has also made him doubtful for the Champions Trophy. Champions Trophy will kick off from 22nd September in South Africa.

This is a major blow for India as Indian opening batsman Virender Sehwag was already ruled out due to shoulder injury. Indian team will be eyeing towards no. 1 spot in the ICC rankings and they will have to win all three matches in the tri-series to dethrone South Africa from the top place.

Indian team will start their campaign on 11th September with match against New Zealand. Indian squad for the tri-series includes Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Rahul Dravid, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Ashish Nehra, Rudra Pratap Singh, Amit Mishra, Dinesh Karthik and Abhishek Nayar.