The Indian selectors have publicized their team for the first two Tests against Australia, MS Dhoni will be the skipper as Gautam Gambhir has been dropped.

Australia will be visiting India in February-March 2013 and will play four Tests against the hosts. Earlier, the visiting England humiliated India in the four Test home series 2-1 and the home side faced a lot of criticism from the cricket lovers of the country. The national selectors do not want to take any risk in the forthcoming series against the formidable Australians and have tried to select the team purely on merit.

The star opener, Gautam Gambhir, Parvinder Awana and the leg spinner, Piyush Chawla, have been dropped whereas the star off spinner, Harbhajan Singh has made a comeback. The young fast bowler, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who impressed in the limited overs series against Pakistan and England, has been included in the side whereas a prominent batsman, Shikhar Dhawan has been named in the unit.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Shikhar Dhawan will most likely win the Test caps and will try to prove their selection right by their performance. Below, we will highlight the careers of the above two players along with their achievements in the domestic cricket.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Bhuvneshwar Kumar Singh was born on February 5, 1990, in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, a right hand lower order batsman and a right arm medium fast bowler. He has played for India, Uttar Pradesh, Pune Warriors, Royal Challengers Bangalore and India A.

The 23-year-old is a lethal fast bowler who has the ability to move the ball either sides with speed and accuracy and knows how to contain runs under pressure while taking wickets. He made his international ODI debut vs. Pakistan on December 30, 2012, at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai, and claimed two wickets for just 24 runs in 9 overs.

The right arm bowler continued with his sterling performance in the entire series against the Green Shirts and was the most impressive of the lot against the English side as well. He has played 8 One Day Internationals and got 9 wickets at an average of 35.00 with the best of 3-29.

Bhuvneshwar has taken part in 46 First-class matches, grabbed 149 wickets averaging 26.02 runs per wicket with the best of 6-77 in an innings and 9-103 in a match. He will be a secret weapon for the hosts against Australia and the selectors have full confidence in the abilities of the youngsters.

Shikhar Dhawan

Shikhar Dhawan was born on December 5, 1985, in Delhi, a left hand top order batsman and an occasional right arm off spin bowler. He has played for India, India A, Mumbai Indians, Delhi, Deccan Chargers, Delhi Under-16s and Delhi Daredevils.

Dhawan has been a consistent performer on the domestic circuit and had been knocking on the doors of Test cricket since long. He played seven matches in the Ranji Trophy 2012-13 and smashed 461 runs at an excellent average of 51.22, the best of unbeaten 116 with 2 hundreds and 1fifty. He plundered 833 runs in the current overall First class season at a superb average of 55.53 with 4 hundreds and 3 half centuries.

The 27-year-old made his international debut in ODI cricket vs. Australia on October 20, 2010, at Visakhapatnam. He has played five ODIs and scored 69 runs which do not reflect his true potential. The opening batsman has played 81 First-class matches and hammered 5679 runs at an average of 45.79, the best of 224 comprising 16 hundreds and 24 fifties.

The Indian team for the first two Tests vs. Australia

MS Dhoni (capt.), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, M Vijay, Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, R Ashwin, Pragyan Ojha, Ashok Dinda.