Mumbai: With many of the senior cricketers, including Sachin Tendulkar, making themselves unavailable due to injuries, the national selectors may opt to induct new faces when they pick the 14-member squad for the forthcoming triangular One-day series to be held in Dhaka from April 11 to 20.

Some of the in-form India 'A' players, who toured the West Indies to take part in the Carib Beer series, were likely to be rewarded with berths in the senior team as the selectors may take the opportunity to test the temperament of these youngsters.

Having played non-stop cricket for the last 18 months, batting maestro Tendulkar and vice-captain Rahul Dravid have decided to skip the series to recover from finger injuries while paceman Ashish Nehra has been ruled out of action for at least five months because of an ankle injury he sustained during the World Cup semi-final encounter against Kenya.

Pace spearhead Javagal Srinath and leg spinner Anil Kumble were almost certain to be rested for the series which also features hosts Bangladesh and South Africa as the other two teams.

Speedster Aavishkar Salvi and Irfan Pathan, leg spinner Amit Mishra, openers Gautam Gambhir and Akash Chopra and middle order batsman A T P Rayudu are definitely in the reckoning for a place in the squad.

All these young players have been very impressive at the domestic level and could get the nod from the selectors, who have often reposed faith on the youngsters keeping the future in mind.

The 21-year-old Mumbai pacer Salvi had an outstanding tour of the Caribbean capturing as many as 31 wickets and was singled out for special praise by India 'A' coach Ashok Malhotra.

The Delhi openers Gautam Gambhir and Akash Chopra were also quite impressive during the tour aggregating 617 and 545 runs respectively and one of them could be tried out in the opening slot, particularly in the absence of Tendulkar.

Captain Saurav Ganguly is also reportedly keen to take rest though it is unlikely that the Board will concede his request in view of the injury-induced absence of some of the seniors. If he does manage to convince the bigwigs, the selectors may have to name a stand-in skipper.

The younger members of India's World Cup squad like Virender Sehwag, Mohammad Kaif, Yuvraj Singh, Ajit Agarkar, Zaheer Khan, Sanjay Bangar and Harbhajan Singh were expected to be retained.

With Dravid opting out of the tour, young Parthiv Patel was almost certain to don the wicket-keeper's gloves. Though Patel was part of the World Cup squad, he did not get to play a single match. There is some doubt about Dinesh Mongia's selection as the left-hander was far from impressive in the World Cup, totalling just 120 runs in six innings.

Leg spinner Amit Mishra, who was part of the Indian squad during the home series against Zimbabwe, was likely to take Kumble's place in case he is rested though off spinner Sarandeep Singh also has an outside chance.

Pacers Tinu Yohannan and L Balaji, despite being a little inconsistent during India A's tour of the Caribbean, also have a chance of making it to the team.

Extras:
Sachin, Dravid, Nehra to miss Dhaka tri-series