Brushing aside injury worries, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) selection committee, headed by its chairman K Srikkanth, today announced a 15-member squad for the 2011 ICC World Cup to be played in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh from February 19 to April 2.
The selectors took into consideration the fact that spin would make a big difference in winning on wickets in the sub-continents, specially in India, and picked three spinners in Harbhajan Singh, R Ashwin (both off-spinners) and leg-spinner Piyush Chawla, who has been recalled.
India will take on Bangladesh in the opening match to be played in Dhaka on February 19.
The team:
M S Dhoni (Captain), Virendra Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvaraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, Praveen Kumar, Ashish Nehra, R Ashwin,
Yusuf Pathan and Piyush Chawla.
"It will be a golden moment for me if India wins the cup this time," Srikkanth told journalists after announcing the team.
He and his co-selectors Narendra Hirwani and Surendra Bhave had consulted the other two selectors, Yashpal Sharma and Raja Venkat as well as captain Dhoni, who are in South Africa, in a teleconference.
"I am confident that the team can lift the cup this time. We can do it, why not? If we could win the World Cup almost 22 years back in 1983, then the World Series Cup and the T20 World Cup, we can win also win the cup this time," he said.
"I will not answer this question. Be positive. Injuries are part and parcel of a player's career," he remarked when asked about injuries to key players like Tendulkar, Sehwag, Gambhir, Praveen Kumar and skipper Dhoni himself.
"There are no surprises, we have picked a sensible team, taking into consideration the opponents, how they will play and the strategy to win the Cup," he added.
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