By IANS
Bangalore : Injured pacer Ishant Sharma was not considered for the first Test against South Africa this month while in-form Gautam Gambhir was also ignored as a 14-member squad was announced here Monday.
“Ishant Sharma has been ruled out of the first Test as of now. He will take a fitness test after the first Test and then we will see,” said Niranjan Shah, secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, while announcing the team for the first two Tests.
Shah also said that wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and off-spinner Harbhajan Singh will undergo fitness tests March 21 in Bangalore.
“If they are found unfit, they will be replaced by wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik and leg-spinner Piyush Chawla.”
The first of the three Tests begin in Chennai March 26.
Squad: Anil Kumble (captain), Virender Sehwag, Wasim Jaffer, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, V.V.S. Laxman, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wicketkeeper), Harbhajan Singh, Sreesanth, Irfan Pathan, Rudra Pratap Singh and Murali Kartik.