Indian cricket team in Zimbabwe in 2015 that the tour will go ahead with India fielding a second-strength side, with the selection committee meeting in Delhi on 29 June to pick the squads. Indian team director Ravi Shastri missed the tour due to professional commitments that were agreed before the BCCI extended his contract. The Indian squad was announced on 29 June as planned. On 6 July Indian bowler Karn Sharma was ruled out of the tour after fracturing a finger in his left hand. There was no replacement for him. This left the Indian team with only two spin options of Harbhajan Singh and Axar Patel.
Harbhajan Singh at The Oval in London, was partly attributed to his marketability. Harbhajan had generated a large personal following in the western London suburb of Southall, which boasts a majority Punjabi Sikh population, when he lived there in 1998 while training under Fred Titmus. In 2006 Harbhajan's endorsements generated controversy when he appeared without his turban in an advertisement for Royal Stag whisky. This angered many orthodox Sikhs, leading to anti-Harbhajan protests in the Sikh holy city of Amritsar, with effigies of Harbhajan being burnt. The Sikh clergy and Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee demanded an apology from him and asked Seagram's