CHENNAI: The Indian World Cup cricket team has very few surprises. The selection committee, headed by chairman Krishnamachari Srikkanth, took a little over an hour at a hotel on Monday to finalise the 15-member team that comprised an extra spinner than what was expected. The World Cup will be played from February 19 to April 2 in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, a factor which obviously compelled the selectors to go in for an extra spinner as the pitches in the sub-continent tend to favour the tweakers. So from an expected five (medium-pacers) plus two (spinners) combo, it ultimately came down to four plus three as the selectors put forward the 'Indian conditions'.
"This is the best balanced team that we can find," beamed Srikkanth as he briefed the media. "This team has a very strong batting line-up and good spinners," he added.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni will be leading a batting line-up that starts with Sehwag and Gambhir and a set of explosive stroke-players such as Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan and himself. Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar, Ashish Nehra and Munaf Patel are the four medium-pacers while both R Ashwin and Piyush Chawla came in as spinners to assist Harbhajan Singh. That effectively sealed pacer Sreesanth's fate.
The team: MS Dhoni (Captain), V Sehwag (Vice-captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, Praveen Kumar, Ashish Nehra, R Ashwin, Piyush Chawla.
