India drops Yuvraj Singh from Asia Cup squad

Out-of-form batsmen Yuvraj Singh and Yusuf Pathan were dropped and Sachin Tendulkar rested on request from the 15-man India squad named on Monday for the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka this month.

Tendulkar asked the Board of Control for Cricket in India not to consider him for the one-day international tournament as he wanted to spend time with his family, board secretary N. Srinivasan said after the selectors met in the Indian capital.

The dropping of Yuvraj and Yusuf was expected after disappointing performances in recent months.

The return of the likes of regular captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Virender Sehwag made this side far stronger than the one which failed in Zimbabwe to reach this week's final of the tri-nations tournament.

Saurabh Tiwary, a 20-year-old batsman, received his first callup for his impressive efforts for Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League.

Kris Srikkanth, the chairman of Indian selectors, said a lot of importance was given to the players' fitness.

"Fitness and fielding are very important," he said. "We have gone through the records in the last year and put lot of stress on it. Recently, we lost some matches or struggled in some matches because of poor fielding."

The Asia Cup will be in Dumbulla in Sri Lanka from June 15-24. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka will battle for cricket supremacy in the region.

India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Praveen Kumar, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Pragyan Ojha, Ashok Dinda, R. Ashwin, Saurabh Tiwary.