Gambhir Out of Series

India opener Gautam Gambhir will miss the upcoming one-day international series with South Africa due to a groin injury.

The 28-year-old was left out of India's 15-man squad for the ODI series as they named their party for the first two of three matches, starting in Jaipur on Sunday.

Gambhir has been in flying form of late but his injury means that India will be without his skills against the Proteas, as he is already missing the Test series.

"Gautam Gambhir is not available for the ODI series due to groin injury," the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said in a statement.

Yuvraj Singh is also missing the Test series with a wrist injury and that will keep him out of the ODIs, while spinner Harbhajan Singh says he is unavailable due to personal reasons.

"Harbhajan declared himself unavailable for the first two ODIs due to personal reasons," the release confirmed.

Uncapped off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has been called up to replace Harbhajan, with the Tamil Nadu man being rewarded for his good domestic form.

All-rounder Yusuf Pathan is also included in the squad after his unbeaten 210 led West Zone to the Duleep Trophy, while Mumbai all-rounder Abhishek Nayar is also included in the squad.

India Squad: Mahendra Singh 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, Amit Mishra.