Most of the other participating nations already have their squad in place; the IPL has delayed the matter for India, the defending champion of the ICC World Twenty20 cricket championship. But tomorrow being the last date for submitting the names of the probable, the Indian squad for Twenty-20 championship was bound to take the final shape today and the squad is finally revealed before the cricket news media.

While the entire nation was waiting with batted breath to see, who can make his way to England and who can’t, it is finally here to point out toward one unmistakable trend and that is: IPL performance is increasingly becoming a criteria for finding a place in Indian T-20 squad.

MS Dhoni will undoubtedly lead the team and protect the stump for the team too, while Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan,  Rohit Sharma are going to make up the famous Indian batting line up. On the bowling squad, the selection of Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma and Praveen Kumar was too evident. However, all speculations ended with R P Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Pragyan Ojha and Irfan Pathan finally making it to the team. The front runners who could not make it finally include Dinesh Karthik, Abhishek Nayar and Munaf Patel.

The 16 cricketers who toured New Zealand made a well balanced team. Despite the team’s 2-0 loss against the Kiwis, the team was a solid one. But IPL has definitely made the task tougher for the Indian selectors. For RP Singh and Abhishek Nayar it was a close race. While the first could make it, the second couldn’t. RP was rewarded for his consistency throughout IPL.  He is the player to play for the Mumbai team for the longest period in the IPL. In the inaugural T-20 world cup in South Africa in 2007, he finished off as no 3 on the wicket-takers’ list. And in current IPL, he is the second-highest wicket-taker.

It was also difficult for the selectors to write off Irfan Pathan who proved to be a reliable wicket-taker and provider of quick and important runs. But in the close race between Munaf Patel and Praveen Kumar, the second got the chance. Especially he made a strong case for himself by showing his mental strength by bagging two wickets in the last over against Punjab when 12 were needed to win.

 

As it came to the choice between the three batsmen - Dinesh Karthik, Ravindra Jadeja and Abhishek Nayar, their part time skills might have had some role in their selection and it is now clear that Jadeja’s all-rounder skills gave him an edge over the others.

Meanwhile the squad has got a thumbs up from former chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar who said the 15-member squad, replete with quality all-rounders have bright prospect in England's seaming conditions.

“More or less the same squad has been retained. The Indian team is doing very well and the IPL has also been a great hit and many all-rounders are performing well. With England hosting the World Cup, the role of all-rounders will be important as in English conditions the ball will do a bit and India has many good all-rounders like Irfan Pathan and I think India has a good chance to retain the Cup,” Vengsarkar said.

Squad: MS Dhoni (Captain), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Rohit Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, RP Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Pragyan Ojha, Irfan Pathan.

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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