India ICC world cup 2011 squad announced- Sreesanth, Rohit Sharma omitted- R. Ashwin in the squad

India ICC world cup 2011 squad announced- Sreesanth, Rohit Sharma omitted- R. Ashwin in the squad

Prominent Players Omitted

Indian cricket team for ICC world cup 2011was announced on 17--01-2011. The surprise was the exclusion of middle order Batter Rohit Sharma, S.Sreesanth and Ishant Sharma. The 15 member squad include 3 specialist spinners, Harbajan Singh, R. Aswin and Piyush Chawla. Medium pace Munaf patel was preferred over Sreesanth and Ishat Sharma taking in to account his match winning performance against South Africa in the second ODI of the series. Pragyan Ojha who made good performance in recent times couldn't make it to the final Squad.

Piyush Chawla's inclusion the squad was surprising as Rohit sharma's exclusion; the leggie has been out of the Team for a long time. He last played for the side in 2008 against New Zealand. May be he was included to provide more variety to the bowling attackm
India included more medium paces and spinners in the team over the fast bowlers; there is only one genuine fast bowler for Indiana in the form of Zaheer Khan. Chairman of selection committee Cris Srrekanth Defended the selection committee's decision to give preference to Spinners and medium Paces saying the sub continent wickets would suit more to the medium pacers and Spinners.

Other highlight of the team selection was that there is no Reserve keeper included in the 15 member squad for the world cup 2011. Instead selectors went for a spinner in the slot of a of a specialist wicket keeper. It was expected to pick Parthiv Patel as a reserve opening batter and as a reserve wicket keeper. But the inclusion of the spinner in place of Patel makes sense. Since the games are played in sub continent and there is option to replace the injured ones during the world cup and Dhoni is keeping fit, there is not much scope for injuries to him.

Sreesanth and to an Extent Ishant was unlucky, Sreeshant has been gaining back his form he performed well in the test matches in South Africa, Ishant was also performing well in South Africa. Selector defended the decisions saying Sreesanth and Ishant is more suits to the pace tracks, and their replacements Prveen Kumar and Munaf are more suited to the dead tracks of India. Former captain of India Saurav ganguly expressed his surprise over the omission of Sreesanth from the world cup squad

Rest of the squad is more of the same, there is a total of 7 specialist batters in the squad 3 Spinners, 4 medium pacers and a wicket keeper. Dhoni remains as the Captain and Shewag as Vice aptain. Aswin’s inclusion was a important decision since he is fresh to the international side and he will be a surprise element for many of the touring countries.

Selectors has done a good job in choosing the squad, there is worries of injuries to four players of the squad that including Sachin, Shewag, Yuvraj and Zhaheer. There is a definite advantage for India in this world cup out of it league matches India playing 6 of them in the home ground.

Team India Squad for 2011 ICC World Cup

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