Test wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel was axed to make way for uncapped India A gloveman Dinesh Karthik in the 14-man squad for the Interna-tional Cricket Council's 12-nation tournament to be played from September 10 to 25.

Zaheer and Patel are the only omissions from the Asia Cup squad which lost to hosts Sri Lanka in the final on Sunday. It was the 10th defeat in 13 one-day finals for Sourav Ganguly's men in the last four years.

Zaheer, dogged by hamstring injuries over the past year, was laid low again during the Asia Cup and hobbled his way in the last two matches.

"Zaheer needs time to recover and the selectors wanted to rest him ahead of a busy home season that includes Tests against Australia and South Africa," said cricket board secretary Karunakaran Nair.

Agarkar fought his way back with a string of good performances for Middlesex in English county cricket, including a 5-81 against Gloucester-shire at Lord's on Wednesday.

Patel, 19, was discarded after managing just 132 runs from 14 one-dayers, but remains the number one choice of the selectors for Test matches.

"Parthiv is a very talented cricketer with a lot of promise and should be an automatic choice for Tests," said chief selector Syed Kirmani, himself a former Test wicketkeeper.

"But he is not suited for one-dayers. We needed someone who will be effective with the bat."

Karthik, a dashing 19-year-old batsman-keeper, is currently touring Zimbabwe with the India A side and scored 96 and 52 in the first two matches there. He impressed with the bat at the under-19 World Cup and in domestic cricket.

Left-handed Rohan Gavaskar, son of legendary Indian opener Sunil Gavaskar, will be added to the squad for two one-day tournaments prior to the Champions Trophy.

India play world champions Australia and Pakistan in a one-off series in the Netherlands from August 21 to 28 and then take on England in three matches between September 1-5.

But all-rounder Gavaskar will drop out of the squad for the Champions Trophy that runs from September 10 to 25.

SQUAD

Sourav Ganguly (captain), Rahul Dravid (vice-captain), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Venkatsai Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Ajit Agarkar, Irfan Pathan, Laxmipathy Balaji, Ashish Nehra, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh.