India’s final fifteen!
The bad news first. Sreesanth, Rohit Sharma fail to get the nod in the final 15 that will represent India in cricket’s biggest prize. Now for the good news. Ravindra Jadeja does not make the cut. Sources point out that Mahendra Singh Dhoni did not want Sree in the squad and opted instead for Ashish Nehra along with Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel and Praveen Kumar.
‘Horses for the courses’ is the adage that fits well with this selection panel. The team sports a spinner-heavy combination with the likes of Bhajji, Piyush Chawla and R. Ashwin donning their spin roles, not to forget those such as Tendulkar, Yusuf and Raina who can roll their arm over. While the likes of Sehwag, Gambhir, Yuvraj, Sachin, Dhoni pick themselves up, the selection of Piyush Chawla raised quite a few eyebrows. For someone, who last played in Dhoni’s team way back in the Asia Cup in 2008 and has not played a single of his 21 ODIs in India, his was a tough one to digest. The wise men chose Chawla over Pragyan Ojha which boasts of three tweakers.
The Indian team has six batsmen, four pacers, three tweakers, all-rounder in the form of Yusuf Pathan and Dhoni as ’keeper cum batsman. Will this team be able to deliver? Well, I shall write about that in my next entry.
India’s World Cup squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Captain), Virender Sehwag (Vice Captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Praveen Kumar, Munaf Patel, R Ashwin, Piyush Chawla
