CHENNAI, Dec 4: India’s cricket selectors resurrected the Test career of Yuvraj Singh on Thursday by naming him for the two-match series against England starting next week.

The left-hander was included in a 15-man squad for the series that England said will go ahead pending a security clearance, following last week’s Mumbai attacks.

Chennai hosts the first Test from Dec 11 while Mohali is the venue of the second Test that will begin on Dec 19.

Yuvraj smashed 325 runs, including two centuries, at an average of 108.33 in five One-day Internationals against England last month as India blanked the tourists 5-0. The last two games of what was supposed to be a seven-match series were called off as England flew home after the Mumbai incident.

Yuvraj, who turns 28 on the second day of the Chennai Test, returns to the Test side after being ignored for the tour of Sri Lanka in July-August and the home series against world champions Australia in October-November.

He replaces another left-hander, former captain Saurav Ganguly, who retired from international cricket last month after India’s 2-0 series win over Australia.

Yuvraj, a veteran of 222 ODIs, has played just 23 Tests since his debut in 2003, scoring 1,050 runs at 32.81 with three centuries.

The squad, announced in an Indian cricket board release, retains most players that took part in India’s winning campaign against Ricky Ponting’s Australians.

Left-arm slow bowler Pragyan Ojha, who has yet to play a Test after five one-day appearances, is the only new face in the squad as a back-up to frontline spinners Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra. He replaces seamer Rudra Pratap Singh.

Squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, V.V.S. Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Amit Mishra, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel, Pragyan Ojha, Subramaniam Badrinath, Murali Vijay.—AFP