Monday, January 17, 2011

Three spinners in India's World Cup squad, Rohit Sharma dropped

India included three spinners and dropped Rohit Sharma in their final 15-member squad for the ICC cricket World Cup selected by the five-member selection panel led by K Srikanth in Chennai on Monday.

The list of 30 probables were pruned to half and no big star is left out of the final squad for the mega-event starting February 19.

The top-seven of the Indian batting-order -- Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni -- are in the team as expected and Yusuf Pathan take the all-rounder's berth.

The inspirational Zaheer Khan lead the pace attack and his pacer partners will be the trio of Ashish Nehra, Munaf Patel and Praveen Kumar. S Sreesanth and Ishant Sharma failed to make the cut.

Harbhajan Singh will spearhead the slow bowling department with Piyush Chawla and R Ashwin as his spin partner. Amit Mishra and Pragyan Ojha were also vying for the slot.

Just a day before the selection meeting, doubts have arisen over Sachin Tendulkar's availability after he pulled out of the remainder of the ODI series in South Africa as a precautionary measure after sustaining a hamstring injury during Saturday's second match.

But going by indications, the injury is not serious and Tendulkar will be making his sixth World Cup appearance.

Squad

Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt/wk), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, Praveen Kumar, Yusuf Pathan, Piyush Chawla, R Ashwin, Ashish Nehra.

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