Anil Kumble and chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar during the selection meeting in Mumbai on Wednesday. (PTI)

Calcutta/Mumbai: Spinners Harbhajan Singh and Murali Kartik were recalled on Wednesday while in-form Gautam Gambhir failed to find a place in the 14-member Indian squad for the first two Tests against Pakistan.

As reported by The Telegraph on Wednesday, Harbhajan made the comeback. Though he was in the Test squad which had toured South Africa at the end of last year, his last Test appearance was as far back as July 2006 (in the West Indies).

The 27-year-old was dropped from the Test and one-day teams after the World Cup in March due to poor form and missed the Test series win in England that concluded in August.

The likes of Virender Sehwag and Irfan Pathan went out of the equation as the selectors chose only XIV and not XV.

Gambhir lost out as Dilip Vengsarkar & Co. felt a third spinner was necessary in home conditions if one of the two specialists — captain Anil Kumble and Harbhajan — got injured before the toss. If that did happen, they would be left without a replacement if a third spinner was not in the squad. That’s how, Kartik came in at the expense of an extra batsman.

Wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni expectedly was appointed deputy to Kumble.

The first match in the three-Test series starts in New Delhi on November 22.

BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah convened the meeting and announced the list of team members but their recent practice of asking Vengsarkar to interact with the media after the meeting was done away with.

Shah said that the team for the final Test in Bangalore (December 8-12) as well as for the following tour of Australia would be picked at the conclusion of the Calcutta Test.

Test specialist V.V.S. Laxman and former captain Rahul Dravid, no longer figuring in the ODI squad, give meat to the experienced middle order which has Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, and Yuvraj Singh, besides Dhoni.

The XIV

Batsmen: Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, V.V.S. Laxman, Anil Kumble, Wasim Jaffer, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Karthik. Wicketkeeper: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (vice-captain). Spinners: Anil Kumble (captain), Harbhajan Singh, Murali Kartik. Mediumpacers: Zaheer Khan, Rudra Pratap Singh, Sreesanth.