Sehwag out of both ODI, test squads; Ranadeb, Rohit new faces

New Delhi, June 12 (UNI) Virender Sehwag and Harbhajan Singh got the axe while Mumbai batsman Rohit Sharma and Bengal pacer Ranadeb Bose were the new faces in the ODI and Test teams respectively as the BCCI selection committee announced the squads for the upcoming Ireland and England tours here today.

Sehwag, who toured Bangladesh last month as a member of the shorter version of the game, was dropped from the 15-member ODI squad and was not considered for 16-member Test squad announced by selection committee chairman Dilip Vengsarkar.

Punjab off spinner Harbhajan Singh, who was left out of Bangladesh tour last month in both forms of the game, missed the bus again.

The ODI squad was for the five matches -- one against Ireland (June 23), three against South Africa (June 26, 29, July 1) and one against Pakistan (July 3) while the Test squad was for the three-match series against England from November 22 to December 12.

Dashing wicketkeeper-batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni was ''rewarded'' for his consistent good form by elavating him as vice-captain of the ODI team.

Munaf Patel was not considered for both squads ''because of lack of fitness'' while Ajit Agarkar made yet another comeback.

Former captains Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly, who were ''rested'' from ODI for the Bangladesh tour, returned in the one-day squad.

''Sehwag is a good player. He will be considered in future. I am sure he will come back,'' was all what Vengsarkar said of the Delhi batsman's omission.

''The same is in the case of Harbhajan. He is a fine bowler. I am sure he will also come back,'' Vengsarkar said.

''(He has to) take wickets,'' was Vengsarkar's cryptic reply when asked what Harbhajan has to do to make a comeback.

Giving reasons for ''rewarding'' Dhoni, the selection committee chairman said, ''He did extremely well for the past some months. He is a thinker and has a good cricketing brain. So, we decided him to give some responsibilty.'' Regarding Ranadeb Bose's first call up for national duty, Vengsarkar said, ''He took 58 wickets for Bengal this season and England will have perfect conditions for him to do well there.'' Dinesh Mongia, Rajesh Powar and V R V Singh were dropped while Ishant Sharma retained his place in the Test team.

ODI squad: Rahul Dravid (Capt), M S Dhoni (Vice-Capt), Gautam Gambhir, Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Karthick, Zaheer Khan, S Sreesanth, R P Singh, Ajit Agarkar, Piyush Chawla, Romesh Powar, Robin Utthappa, Rohit Sharma.

Test squad: Rahul Dravid (Capt), Sachin Tendulkar (Vice-Capt), Wasim Jaffer, Dinesh Karthick, Sourav Ganguly, V V S Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, M S Dhoni, Zaheer Khan, S Sreesanth, R P Singh, Anil Kumble, Romesh Powar, Gautam Gambhir, Ishant Sharma, Ranadeb Bose.

UNI