Prolific opener Gautam Gambhir was on Tuesday left out because of a groin injury while Tamil Nadu off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin was named in India's 15-member ODI squad for the first two one dayers against South Africa.

Apart from Gambhir, off-spinner Harbhajan Singh has also not been picked because of personal reasons, while Yuvraj Singh was ruled out because of a wrist injury.

Baroda all-rounder Yousuf Pathan and Mumbai all-rounder Abhishek Nayar were recalled in the squad announced by the BCCI secretary N Srinivasan after a meeting of the selection committee here.

Pravin Kumar, who did not feature in India's tri-series squad in Bangladesh, has also been included in the team to be captained by Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

There was no place for left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha in the squad which has Ashwin and Amit Mishra as the two specialist spinners.

Harbhajan Singh has declared himself not available for the first two ODIs due to personal reasons. Gautam Gambhir is not available for the ODI series due to groin injury," the BCCI release said.

The first ODI will be played in Jaipur on February 21 while Gwalior will host the second match on February 24. The three-match series will end in Ahmedabad on February 27.

Team: M S Dhoni (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Virat Kohli, Dinesh Karthik, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Sudeep Tyagi, Praveen Kumar, Abhishek Nayar, Yusuf Pathan and Amit Mishra. PTI