Injury claims Dravid and Yuvraj

Subramaniam Badrinath is now in contention for the first Test in Nagpur, with two first-choice batsmen ruled out through injury

India’s selectors have left out Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh for the first Test against South Africa next month due to injuries.

Dravid suffered a fractured cheekbone after being hit by a short delivery while batting during the second Test against Bangladesh in Dhaka and the Board of Control for Cricket in India revealed he would be out for three weeks.

Yuvraj injured a wrist and did not bat in the second Test which India went on to win convincingly.

A BCCI statement read: “Dravid, who sustained a face injury in the second Test against Bangladesh, has been advised rest for three weeks.

“Yuvraj has also been ruled out of the Test series due to an injury to his left wrist.”

VVS Laxman, who suffered a hand injury during the first Test in Chittagong, has been included in the squad, but fast bowler Sreesanth has been left out due to a thigh injury and back-up wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik has been dropped.

Selectors have recalled Subramaniam Badrinath in place of Dravid and have also called up uncapped Karnataka seamer Abhimanyu Mithun and Bengal’s wicketkeeper-batsman Wriddhiman Saha.

South Africa were originally scheduled to play only five one-day internationals in India, but the itinerary was revised to include Tests following India’s ascent to the top of the ICC Test rankings late last year.

South Africa will now play two Tests, the first beginning in Nagpur on February 6 and the other scheduled for Kolkata from February 14.

India squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain, wkt), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Murali Vijay, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Subramaniam Badrinath, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Amit Mishra, Sudeep Tyagi, Pragyan Ojha, Abhimanyu Mithun, Wriddhiman Saha (wkt).