India announce 30-man probables for ICC World Cup 2015; Sehwag, Yuvraj, Zaheer, Gambhir, Harbhajan miss out
The Indian selectors announced a list of 30 probables for the 2015 Cricket World Cup, to be held in Australia and New Zealand next year. Big names such as Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh do not find their names on the 30-man shortlist.
Captain MS Dhoni and vice-captain Virat Kohli lead the squad which has 10 specialist batsmen, 4 wicketkeeper-batsmen, 7 spinners and 9 medium pacers.
Uncapped players like Manish Pandey. Sanju Samson and Kuldeep Yadav have been included in the initial squad. Only 5 players – Dhoni, Kohli, Robin Uthappa, Suresh Raina, R Ashwin – have played at the World Cup before. Apart from Uthappa, the rest were part of India’s victorious campaign in 2011.
Yuvraj, who was the star of India’s World Cup triumph in 2011, hasn’t played for the country since a disastrous outing in the final of the World T20 against Sri Lanka earlier this year. Sehwag and Harbhajan haven’t played for India since the Test series against Australia in February-March 2013. On the other hand, Zaheer Khan’s recent injuries have restricted him from playing at the international level this year.
Full list of probables
MS Dhoni, Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Robin Uthappa, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Kedar Jadhav, Manoj Tiwary, Manish Pandey, Wriddhiman Saha, Sanju Samson, R Ashwin, Parvez Rasool, Karn Sharma, Amit Mishra, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohd Shami, Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron, Dhawal Kulkarni, Stuart Binny, Mohit Sharma, Ashoke Dinda, Kuldeep Yadav and Murali Vijay.