India's pace spearhead Zaheer Khan and Kerala seamer S Sreesanth are ruled out of the forthcoming Test series against the West Indies, beginning June 20.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India on Friday said the two bowlers will be given enough time to recover from injuries sustained during the course of India's World Cup-winning campaign and the fourth season of the Indian Premier League.
Karnataka medium pacer Abhimanyu Mithun and Uttar Pradesh's Praveen Kumar have been named as their replacements.
Zaheer is nursing an injury in his right ankle while Sreesanth has an elbow problem.
In addition to Sreesanth and Zaheer, who is among the senior players who opted out for the ongoing ODI series, India will also be without the services of Sachin Tendulkar, who opted out of the ongoing tour to spend more time with his family; openers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, and Yuvraj Singh.
Gambhir has a shoulder niggle and Yuvraj a lung infection. Both are recuperating and likely to be fit to the tour of England that follows.
Test team: MS Dhoni (captain), VVS Laxman (vice-captain), Murali Vijay, Abhinav Mukund, Rahul Dravid, Virat Kohli, S Badrinath, Suresh Raina, Parthiv Patel, Harbhajan Singh, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Ishant Sharma, Abhimanyu Mithun, Praveen Kumar, Munaf Patel.
The Test series schedule:
| June 20-24 | First Test | Jamaica | 2030 IST |
| June 28-July 2 | Second Test | Barbados | 1930 IST |
| July 6-10 | Third Test | Dominica | 1930 IST |
