He definitely fits into the 30, there is no question about it Chief selector Kiran More

The 34-year-old batsman was axed as skipper last year before being eased out of the Test and one-day squads.

Leg-spinner Anil Kumble, 35, who has played little limited-overs cricket since the 2003 World Cup, is also back.

Paceman Zaheer Khan, 27, like Ganguly overlooked since the tour of Pakistan earlier this year, returns after some impressive displays at Worcestershire.

The list, which will be reduced to 14 next month, also includes three uncapped batsmen in Rohit Sharma, Subramaniam Badrinath and Tejinderpal Singh.

But most attention will surround the return of Ganguly into the selectors' thoughts.

The left-hander has scored 10,123 runs in 279 one-dayers but his last ODI match was in September 2005 in Zimbabwe.

His recent five-week stint at Northamptonshire was far from impressive but chief selector Kiran More defended their decision.

"He is one of the good cricketers we have. He definitely fits into the 30, there is no question about it."

India provisional Champions Trophy squad: Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Mahendra Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Ajit Agarkar, Irfan Pathan, Shantakumaran Sreesanth, Munaf Patel, Harbhajan Singh, Ramesh Powar, Dinesh Mongia, Rudra Pratap Singh, Anil Kumble, Zaheer Khan, Dinesh Karthik, Piyush Chawla, VVS Laxman, Saurav Ganguly, Venugopal Rao, Robin Uthappa, Gautam Gambhir, Rohit Sharma, Subramaniam Badrinath, TP Singh, Parthiv Patel, Shib Shankar Paul, Vikram Rajvir Singh.