Leg spinner Piyush Chawla was the surprise inclusion while young batsman Rohit Sharma and speedster S Sreesanth were dropped from India's 15-member squad for the upcoming cricket World Cup to be held in the sub-continent from 19th Feb.
There
were just a couple of spots up for grabs in the team and the selectors
opted to include Chawla and Ashwin ahead of Pragyan Ojha in the squad
which has as many as three specialist spinners which came as a surprise.
Apart
from inclusion of Chawla, who last played a ODI match in 2008, there
were no major surprises in the squad to be captained by Mahendra Singh
Dhoni and Virender Sehwag as his deputy.
The
national selectors, who met for one and half hours to finalise the team
in Chennai, picked three specialist spinners considering that the high
profile-event will be held in India , Sri Lanka and Bangladesh .
"This
is the best possible winning combination we have picked up which will
win us the World Cup. We (selectors) engaged in thorough discussion at
the meeting here before finalising the squad.
"Taking
into account all the conditions like wickets, the opposition we will be
playing, the selectors have chosen a very well balanced team," said
chief selector Krishnamachari Srikkanth told reporters after the
meeting.
The chief selector said the reason behind picking up three specialist spinners were the turning wickets in India .
"Don't forget that you are playing in India .
The spinners probably play a very major role on the turning wickets. I
am confident that the kind of balance we have, the kind of batting
line-up we have, this cricket team led by M S Dhoni and others will do
the job for us", he said.
"This
particular Indian team is doing brilliantly for the last couple of
years in both Test and ODI cricket. They are playing consistently not
only in India but outside. We are confident this team will do well and win the world cup for us in front of the home crowd," he added.
Srikkanth said there is going to be a lot of pressure on players given the mega-event is taking place in the sub-continent.
"There is lot of pressure playing in India
and the sub-continent. There is going to be tremendous amount of
pressure on players and selectors. This team will repeat the 1983 feat
again and win us the World Cup," Srikkanth said.
The squad has six batsmen, four pacers, three spinners, one all rounder in Yusuf Pathan and a wicket keeper in captain Dhoni.
Most
of the batsmen select themselves but the only issue is whether those on
the injury list like Tendulkar, Sehwag, and Gambhir can recover fully
before the mega event to be held from 19th February to 2nd April in India , Sri Lanka and Bangladesh .
Zaheer Khan will spearhead the pace bowling department with Munaf Patel, Praveen Kumar and Ashish Nehra being the others.
Harbhajan Singh is the main spinner in the squad while 22-year-old Chawla and 24-year-old Ashwin were the other slow bowlers.
The
big-hitting Yusuf Pathan has also secured a berth in the team since he
can really be destructive on his day and can prove to be a handy bowler
in sub-continent conditions.
Captain
Dhoni is the only wicket keeper with the selectors ignoring all the
three other keepers -- Parthiv Patel, Dinesh Karthik and Wriddhiman
Saha -- who featured in the list of 30 probables.
Ishant
Sharma, Murali Vijay, Ravindra Jadeja, Amit Mishra and Cheteswar Pujara
were some of the other players who failed to find favour.
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.
Get Updates!
Subscribe to the Scholars club email newsletter to receive updates, freebies and exclusives:==>Help us to keep SCHOLARS CLUB running?
Post a Comment
PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR VALUABLE SUGGESTIONS TO GET PUBLISHED.