India retain same squad for 2nd Test against Windies

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India on Thursday named an unchanged Indian squad for the second Test against the West Indies once again leaving out senior off-spinner Harbhajan Singh from the side.

The selection committee met here earlier on Thursday and decided to retain the side which beat the Caribbeans by five wickets in the opening Test, which finished inside four days with their two spinners R. Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha doing exceedingly well.

Ashwin, who will take a break to get married in Chennai on November 13, has been picked for the Test starting a day after his wedding at Kolkata's Eden Gardens stadium.

The 25-year-old off-spinner became only the third cricketer to get the Man of the Match award on debut with his nine-wicket haul, which included six scalps in the second innings.

Ojha too was a success, claiming seven wickets, six of them coming in the first innings.

The fine performance by the two effectively shut the door on Harbhajan, who hasn't done anything noteworthy in the Ranji Trophy as well.

Harbhajan was initially axed from the ODI series against England last month before shown the door from the Test team as well.

The Sqaud: M S Dhoni (C), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, V V S Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Ishant Sharma, R Ashwin, Pragyan Ojha, Umesh Yadav, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Rahul Sharma, Varun Aaron.