NewDelhi:Kerala pacer S Sreesanth will replace Praveen Kumar, who is out with an elbow injury, in India's 15-member squad for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011."I am very excited to be in the World Cup squad. I have been training very hard," Sreesanth told NDTV.
Sreesanth's exclusion from the original 15-member World Cup squad had raised quite a few eyebrows, but the bowler said he "never gave up hope."
"I can't wait to join the team," he added.
Praveen had returned home during the ODI series against South Africa, after he had aggravated an elbow injury. Despite that he was included in the final 15 squad for the World Cup.
He was undergoing treatment at Bangalore's National Cricket Academy after which he went off to England. But the injury was just not getting better and time was running out, so Praveen was ruled out.
Sreesanth has established himself in the Test side but has been on the fringes of the one-day outfit. He has played only 51 one-dayers in more than five years since his debut in 2005, and has a bloated career economy rate of 6.01. India have picked him in only two one-dayers over the past 12 months, and Sreesanth proved effective in both of them -bagging seven wickets for 77 runs.
