The five-man Indian selection committee, headed by K. Srikkanth, named a 15-member team for first Test against the West Indies to be played at New Delhi from November 6.
The team has four new faces in opening batsman Ajinkya Rahane, young pacer Varun Aaron, leg spinner Rahul Sharma and offie R. Ashwin.
The meeting which went on for more than two hours decided to drop leg spinner Amit Mishra, pacer S. Sreesanth and off-spinner Harbhajan Singh.
Contrary to claims that skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni will be rested during the three-Test series, the selectors decided to continue with him as captain.
Stylish left-hander Yuvraj Singh too returned to the side to bolster the middle-order.
Pragyan Ojha will be the lone specialist left-arm spinner.
Ravindra Jadeja, who did so well in the recently concluded ODI series against England, failed to find a place.
The squad:
M.S. Dhoni (Capt.), Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, V.V.S. Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, R. Ashwin, Pragyan Ojha, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Virat Kohli, Varun Aaron, Ajinkya Rahane and Rahul Sharma.
