Chennai, Jan 15 (IANS) India’s batting great Sachin Tendulkar and pace spearhead Zaheer Khan were picked for the ODIs for the first time since the 2011 World Cup while left-arm seamer Irfan Pathan, who made his comeback in international cricket after two years, retained his place as selectors Sunday announced a 17-member squad for the two Twenty20 internationals against Australia and the triangular series also involving Sri Lanka.

Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh were left out while medium pacer Praveen Kumar, who missed the Test series with a fractured rib, is back in the side. While Yuvraj is yet to recover from a non-malignant tumour in his lungs, Harbahajan has failed to impress the selectors during the Ranji Trophy matches.

Zaheer and Irfan will form the pace attack along with Umesh Yadav and Vinay Kumar, who are part of the Test squad in Australia.

Leg-spinner Rahul Sharma, who impressed during the series against West Indies, will be the second spinner besides offie Ravichandran Ashwin. Manoj Tiwary, who struck his maiden ODI century during the last series against the West Indies, was also selected alongside Parthiv Patel, who will be the reserve wicketkeeper. All-rounder Ravindra Jadeja was also picked.

Pacer Ishant Sharma and left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha, who are part of the Test squad, failed to find a place in the ODI squad.

India will play two Twenty20 internationals against Australia Feb 1 and 3 followed by the ODI tri-series, which will be played Feb 5-March 8.

Squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain/wicketkeeper), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Manoj Tiwary, Parthiv Patel (wicketkeeper), Zaheer Khan, Umesh Yadav, Irfan Pathan, R. Vinay Kumar and Praveen Kumar