Kolkata, Feb 16 (IANS) Indian opener Gautam Gambhir was ruled out with a groin injury while all-rounder Yusuf Pathan was recalled to the squad for the first of the two One-dayers against South Africa here Tuesday.

"Gautam Gambhir is not available for the ODI series due to groin injury," the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said in a statement after the national selectors picked the 15-member squad.

Yuvraj Singh is already sitting out of the ongoing Test series with a ligament tear in his wrist, which he sustained during the Bangladesh tour and is yet to recover.

Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh will also be unavailable for the series beginning Feb 21.

"Harbhajan declared himself unavailable for the first two ODIs due to personal reasons," the release said.

Tamil Nadu off spinner Ravichandran Ashwin was rewarded for his good performance in the domestic circuit as he got his maiden call in the Indian squad.

Yusuf Pathan, too, has been in blistering form in the domestic season and won the Duleep Trophy for West Zone with a sensational unbeaten 210.

Mumbai all-rounder Abhishek Nayar also got a place in squad.

Uttar Pradesh seamer Praveen Kumar, who was left out of the Bangladesh tri-series, was back in the squad while Bengal pacer Ashok Dinda and left-arm spinner Pragyan Ohja were axed.

Squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Virat Kohli, Dinesh Karthik, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, R.Ashwin, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Sudeep Tyagi, Praveen Kumar, Abhishek Nayar, Yusuf Pathan, Amit Mishra.