Cricket World Cup Teams
The ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, the biggest sporting event is scheduled to kick off on 19th February 2011. Here is a review about Cricket World Cup Squads:
Pakistan:
The Pakistan Cricket Board decided to retain the squad that was selected for the ODI series against New Zealand with the exception of pace bowler Tanvir Ahmed. Despite having a relatively inexperienced middle order, the selectors continued to ignore the experienced Mohammad Yousuf. Asad Shafiq and Umar Akmal will have a bigger role to guide the middle order along with the experienced Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq, who has played only a couple of games in the whole of 2010.
Kamran Akmal was preferred ahead of his brother Adnan to don the wicketkeeper’s role and also open the batting with Mohammad Hafeez. Abdur Rehman, Saeed Ajmal were selected as the spinners while Shoaib Akthar, Umar Gul, Wahab Riaz and Sohail Tanvir will play the role of the leading strike bowlers.
However the selectors haven’t named a captain for the tournament thus prompting speculation that Afridi, following his public criticism about the team, may be sacked as skipper.
Squad: Shahid Afridi, Ahmed Shehzad, Mohammad Hafeez, Kamran Akmal (Wicketkeeper), Asad Shafiq, Younis Khan, Umar Akmal, Abdur Razzaq, Misbah-ul-Haq, Saeed Ajmal, Abdur Rehman, Shoaib Akthar, Umar Gul, Wahab Riaz, Sohail Tanvir.
India:
The selection of 15 men that would represent the country at the World Cup might have caused some happy headaches for the Indian selectors. With most of the team picking itself, it all came down to the battle for the last few spots available.
Munaf Patel’s match winning spell in the second ODI at Durban meant that he beat Sreesanth for the last spot in the pace bowling department. Yusuf Pathan’s match winning century against New Zealand sealed his spot as the all rounder ahead of Ravindra Jadeja. There was no straight shootout between the spinners Ashwin and Chawla as the selectors pulled a surprise out of the bag by including both in the 15 member team. This meant that the highly rated but inconsistent Rohit Sharma missed the bus along with Murali Vijay. This also meant that the selectors decided to gamble on Dhoni as the lone keeper in the squad. Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar and Praveen Kumar, all nursing injuries, were expected to be fit in time for the start of the Cup.
Squad: M.S. Dhoni (Captain & Wicketkeeper), Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Ravichandran Ashwin, Piyush Chawla, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, Ashish Nehra, Praveen Kumar.
Sri Lanka:
The Sri Lankan selectors headed by Aravinda De Silva decided to leave out experienced campaigners Sanath Jayasuriya and Chaminda Vaas from the 15 member squad that will play the World Cup. Muttiah Muralitharan, who will retire at the end of the tournament, was the sole surviving member of the victorious 1996 World Cup team.
Nuwan Kulasekara was included in the team despite being a doubtful starter while Mendis and Herath will fight it out for the second spinner’s role while Suraj Randiv was left out. Chamara Silva and Kapugedera also made the cut which meant that there was no place for the left handed Thilan Kandamby.
Squad: Kumara Sangakkara (Captain & Wicketkeeper), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Upul Tharanga, Mahela Jayawardene, Angelo Matthews, Chamara Silva, Chamara Kapugedera, Thisara Perera, Thilan Samaraweera, Muttiah Muralitharan, Rangana Herath, Ajantha Mendis, Nuwan Kulasekara, Dilhara Fernando, Lasith Malinga.
Tags: Countdown, Cricket, Cricket World Cup, ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, India, ODI Cricket, Pakistan, Squads, Sri Lanka, World Cup
