India drop Kambli for England tour

India have dropped batsman Vinod Kambli for this summer's tour of England, apparently for disciplinary reasons.

Kambli, 24, who has scored 1,084 runs in 17 Tests at an average of 54.20, is replaced by the 23-year-old Saurav Ganguly, who has played one-day international cricket but no Tests.

The uncapped medium-fast bowler Paras Mhambrey and left-arm spinner Sunil Joshi are also included in the 16-man squad captained by Mohammed Azharrudin, to play three Tests and three Texaco Trophy games. The squad arrive on 30 April.

Kambli made his Test debut against England in 1993, when Graham Gooch's touring side lost the three-match series 3-0, and scored 224 in the third Test in Bombay.

Gundappa Viswanath, the chief selector, said Kambli, who is third in the Wisden Cricket Monthly world rankings, was not considered for selection, but would not say why.

However, the former Indian captain Dilip Vengsarkar wrote in the Asian Age newspaper yesterday that he believed Kambli "was dropped for reasons other than cricket". He suggested the reason was disciplinary as he had urged the selectors to include Kambli in the squad for England.

INDIAN SQUAD (to tour England): M Azharuddin (capt), S R Tendulkar (vice- capt), N S Sidhu, A D Jadeja, V Rathore, S V Manjrekar, R S Dravid, S Ganguly, N R Mongia (wkt), J Srinath, V Prasad, P L Mhambrey, A R Kumble, N D Hirwani, S L V Raju, S Joshi.