India’s cricket selectors picked up three specialist spinners, offie Ravichandran Ashwin and leg-spinner Piyush Chawla, while young batsman Rohit Sharma and pacer S. Sreesanth were on Monday omitted from India?s 15-member squad for the World Cup to be held in the sub-continent from February 19.
The squad, which includes most of the star players like Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag, will be captained by Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Tendulkar, Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Praveen Kumar, who are nursing injuries and have been ruled out of the ongoing one-day series against South Africa, have been included in the squad as selectors feel that they would be fit in time.
Chairman of the selection committee Krishnamachari Srikkanth expressed hope that the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led team would win the World Cup, carrying on the success of the team at home and abroad over recent years.
“We have chosen the best combination to win the Cup. This team hopefully will bring back the Cup that we won in 1983,” said Srikkanth.
He claimed that India have chosen the “best combination possible”.
“We have had a thorough discussion among the five selectors,” Srikkanth said.
“We have picked up the best combination taking into consideration factors like wicket condition and the strength and weakness of the opposition. This is a very well balanced team.”
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.