Off-colour Harbhajan Singh [ Images ] was dropped while young spinner Rahul Sharma and pacer Sreenath Aravind are the two new faces in India's [ Images ] depleted 15-member squad for the first two one-dayers in next month's ODI series against England [ Images ].

Gautam Gambhir [ Images ], who missed the ODI series on the tour of England because of concussion, returned to the squad, which will be without the services of a host of seniors, including Sachin Tendulkar [ Images ], Zaheer Khan [ Images ], Virender Sehwag [ Images ] and Yuvraj Singh [ Images ], because of injuries.

Also read: 'I started off as a pacer who could bat a bit'

Vidharba pacer Umesh Yadav and Jharkhand speedster Varun Aaron also figure in the team, announced by the new Board of Control for Cricket in India secretary, Sanjay Jagdale, after a marathon meeting of the selection committee in Chennai, on Thursday.

The team, to be captained by Mahendra Singh Dhoni [ Images ], has a predominantly young bowling attack, with Praveen Kumar [ Images ] being the spearhead.

The selectors picked as many as five fast bowlers and three spinners in Ravindra Jadeja [ Images ], R Ashwin and Sharma.

Parthiv Patel [ Images ], who did reasonably well in the recent ODI series against England, was retained along with up-and-coming batsman Ajinkya Rahane [ Images ] of Mumbai [ Images ].

The first ODI in the five-match series will be played in Hyderabad on October 14, while Delhi [ Images ] will host the second on October 17.

Mohali (Oct 20), Mumbai (Oct 23) and Kolkata [ Images ] (Oct 25) will stage the other three matches.

Kolkata will conduct the lone Twenty20 [ Images ] match against England on October 29.

The team: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Gautam Gambhir, Parthiv Patel, Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli [ Images ], Suresh Raina [ Images ], Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Varun Aaron, Umesh Yadav, R Vinay Kumar, Sreenath Aravind, Rahul Sharma, Manoj Tiwary, Praveen Kumar.