MUMBAI – India will gamble on the fitness of Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Praveen Kumar after the four injured players were included in the final 15-member squad on Monday for next month’s World Cup.
Regular openers Sehwag and Gambhir and paceman Kumar missed the current five-match one-day international series against South Africa through injury while Tendulkar hurt his hamstring in Saturday’s second match and returned home. “Injuries are part of cricket… they are part of life.
Every team has got injury concerns,” Krishnamachari Srikkanth, chairman of the selection committee, told reporters after announcing the team in Chennai. As for the bowling attack, the selectors included four pacemen and three spinners for the Feb. 19-April 2 tournament being co-hosted by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Experienced seamer Zaheer Khan will spearhead the pace attack with support from Kumar, Munaf Patel and Ashish Nehra, while Harbhajan Singh leads the spin department, backed up by Ravichandran Ashwin and Piyush Chawla. Chawla, 22, who bowls legbreak, has played 21 ODIs for India but the last time he featured in the 50-over format was in July, 2008, in the Asia Cup against Pakistan.
Middle-order batsman Rohit Sharma missed out on a spot as the selectors opted instead to include a third spin bowler due to the slow nature of the pitches in the sub-continent. “I think we have selected a very well-balanced team. Don’t forget that when you play in India, the spinners probably play a major role,” Srikkanth said, when asked about their decision to pick three specialist spinners in the squad. “I am confident that with the kind of balance that we have, this Indian cricket team, led by (Mahendra Singh) Dhoni, will do the job for us.”
