T20 WC squad announced; Vinay Kumar sole debutant

Zeecric Bureau Mumbai: Karnataka’s R Vinay Kumar was the sole debutant inducted into the 15-member squad for the Twenty20 World Cup scheduled for next month in the West Indies. Sticking to the players who the BCCI had named in the list of 30 probables that had been sent to the ICC last week, the selectors finally decided to axe struggling Ishant Sharma in favour Vinay Kumar. The five wise men also decided to invest in time-tested experience players for the World Cup ignoring the current form of youngsters like Manish Pandey and Saurabh Tiwary. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who had led India to the title in 2007, would be at the helm with Virender Sehwag as his deputy.Southpaw Gautam Gambhir who is currently nursing a hamstring injury, is expected to recover in time for the tourney. Though currently out of sorts, Yuvraj Singh and Rohit Sharma have been persisted with and along with Suresh Raina, were the 7 batsmen that have been named in the squad. Dinesh Karthik was also named as a backup keeper for skipper Dhoni. Rajasthan Royals’ duo of Yusuf Pathan and Ravindra Jadeja were the spinning all-rounders in the squad and would be expected to share bulk of the slow bowling load with Harbhajan Singh and Piyush Chawla on the Caribbean wickets that are getting slower in nature off late. Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Praveen Kumar and Vinay Kumar have been entrusted with the fast bowling department. Talking to the reporters immediately after the selection meeting chairman of selectors Krishnamachari Srikkanth said that this team can win the world cup for India again. The World Cup kicks-off April 30 onwards. Team: Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja, Rohit Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, Piyush Chawla, Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar, Ashish Nehra and R Vinay Kumar