From the iSport Cricket Pavilion: The National Selection Committee has announced the 15-man squad that will represent Team India in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, throwing a couple of surprises.
Rohit Sharma, Sreesanth and Pragyan Ojha are notable absentees, with the squad consisting of six batsmen, four pacers, three spinners, one all-rounder in Yusuf Pathan and a lone wicket keeper in captain MS Dhoni.
Openers Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, all have made the list even after pulling out of the current ODI series against South Africa due to injury. The selectors are obviously confident that the trio will be back to full fitness before the competition begins on February 19.
The inclusion of only six specialist batsmen in the squad could be a concern with the selectors clearly going for a well-stocked bowling department.
Three specialist spinners have been included - Harbhajan Singh, R Ashwin and Piyush Chawla. Chawla's inclusion over Pragyan Ojha comes as a surprise as the former last played an ODI back in 2008, and has never played one on Indian soil.
The pace department includes Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Munaf Patel and Praveen Kumar who is also injured. Test squad bowlers Sreesanth and Ishant Sharma miss out.
Murali Vijay, Ravindra Jadeja, Amit Mishra and Cheteswar Pujara were some of the other players who failed to find favour.
Chairman of selectors, Kris Srikkanth said, "This is the best possible winning combination we have picked up which will win us the World Cup. We (selectors) engaged in thorough discussions at the meeting here before finalising the squad." He added, "This particular Indian team is doing brilliantly for the past couple of years in both Test and ODI cricket. They are playing consistently not only in India but outside as well."
India are clubbed in Group B alongside Bangladesh, England, South Africa, West Indies, Ireland and The Netherlands.
India will play the inaugural match of the World Cup against Bangladesh in Mirpur on February 19.
Click here to see the full India squad of World Cup 2011
Sachin injured, will this have an impact on the WC 2011?
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a guest
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... this is a bogus team...................R Ashwin?????????????????.............how players like rohit sharma , sreesanth have not got the chance....................... |
a guest
said:
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... best team possible... may be ojha would have been a better option but v understand the srikanth factor hlping out ashwin.  |
a guest
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... v waan rohit or irfan................................... yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy ashwin????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? |
a guest
said:
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... piyush was not needed while we have already two full time and four part time spinners we could replace him with rohit shrama or any wicket keeper batsman as robin uthhappa |
a guest
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... wat d rubish selectors r doin lyk dis..........? in india squad irfan pathan 2 be needed.....! rohit sharma is d most dangerous batsman in d world or wat....?, y should indian team doin lyk wrong....! in last tym world cup in 1st roun india was crushing out all about strong captaincy and selectors n under d capataincy of rahul dravid..................... |
a guest
said:
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... why dis idiots nehra and piyush we have talented players why not irfan, ishant, rohit, uthappa, sreesanth sreesanth is a gud bowler |
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