Sehwag to lead India after Dhoni is banned

Virender Sehwag has been appointed India's captain for two limited-overs internationals after the International Cricket Council suspended skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni for his team's slow over rate.

The Indian cricket board said on Saturday the selectors had asked Sehwag to take over the captain's mantle in the absence of Dhoni, who was summoned for a hearing by match referee Jeff Crowe after Friday's one-day match that India lost to Sri Lanka by three wickets.

The five-match series is tied 1-1.

The remaining three one-dayers are to be played in Cuttack (Dec. 21), Calcutta (Dec. 24) and New Delhi (Dec. 27).

The Indian board said in a statement Saturday that beside the captain's two-match suspension, the entire team had been penalized 40 percent of the match fees for the slow over rate during Friday's match.

Wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik will replace Dhoni in the Indian squad, while pace bowler Ishant Sharma has been included in place of Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, who is recovering from swine flu.

India squad:

Virender Sehwag (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Dinesh Karthik, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Praveen Kumar, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha and Sudeep Tyagi.

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