Chennai: In what could be called a major decision in the Indian cricket arena, the ‘Big-5’ of the Men in Blue — Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir, Harbhajan Singh and Virendra Sehwag — have failed to make it to the list of 30 probables for the ICC World Cup 2015.
The Indian cricket selection committee has taken its pick and has clearly voted for the young brigade. The 30-member probables for the forthcoming edition of the ICC World Cup was announced Thursday, and it’s the young guns that would be firing all cylinders, while the seniors have been given a royal ignore.
Contrary to popular belief, the selection panel, headed by Sandip Patil, that met in Mumbai on Thursday, relied more on the young blood than people who’ve been there and done that. Touted as a big day for the seniors who have been out of action for a while, the announcement came as a complete dampener for the seniors who were a part of the World Cup winning squad.
Here’s the list of the 30 probables. There are 12 batsmen included, who are Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Robin Uthappa, Murali Vijay, Manish Pandey, Cheteshwar Pujara and Unmukt Chand.
There are also three wicket-keepers: MS Dhoni, Wriddhiman Saha and Sanju Samson. The pacers, 10 in number, include Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Varun Aaron, Mohammad Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Ishwar Pandey, Mohit Sharma, Dhawal Kulkarni, Vinay Kumar, and Jaydev Unadkat, along with three spinners, R Ashwin, Axar patel, Karn Sharma and Amit Mishra. The two all-rounders included in the list of probables are Stuart Binny and Ravindra Jadeja.
One point worth taking note of is the fact that in this list, there are only four players who were a part of last time’s world cup winning squad: skipper MS Dhoni, who will be leading the team again this time, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and R Ashwin.
One good thing for the Indian team is the fact that they are currently touring Australia, so it is a great chance for the players announced in the probables list to get used to the bouncy conditions there and also share tips with their team-mates who are not a part of the tour.
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