MS Dhoni Banned for 2 ODI's

CHENNAI (Reuters) - Virender Sehwag will step in to captain India in two one-day internationals against Sri Lanka after Mahendra Singh Dhoni was hit with a two-match ban.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) handed down an immediate suspension on the regular skipper for his team's slow over rate in Friday's second one-dayer, the Indian cricket board said on Saturday.

The Indian players have been penalised 40 percent of their match fees, the BCCI statement added.

The hearing was conduced late on Friday after Sri Lanka won the match by three wickets with five deliveries to spare, levelling the five-match series at 1-1.

The match ended 45 minutes after the scheduled time due to frequent discussions between the Indian players.

Wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik has taken Dhoni's place in the team while paceman Ishant Sharma replaced Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, who has yet to recover from a bout of swine flu.

The final game in the five-match series will be played in Delhi on Dec 27.

The board announced the following squad for the matches in Cuttack (Monday) and Kolkata (Thursday).

India:

Virender Sehwag (captain), Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Karthik (wicketkeeper), Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Ishant Sharma, Virat Kohli, Sudeep Tyagi, Praveen Kumar, Pragyan Ojha