SPORTS TALK

Indian Worldcup Champion 2011

2011-06-15T08:25:00.000-07:00

Gambhir to lead, Badrinath in for WI limited-overs leg

2011-05-14T07:31:00.000-07:00

Gautam Gambhir will lead a depleted Indian side to the limited-overs leg of the West Indies tour, with five first-choice players including Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni either rested or injured. As expected, the national selectors haven't given much weightage to performances in the IPL, instead rewarding results in the more traditional domestic competitions. S Badrinath, Rohit Sharma and Parthiv Patel muscled their way in helped by the weight of runs in both formats of the Ranji Trophy.

R Vinay Kumar, Ishant Sharma and Amit Mishra made their way back, replacing Ashish Nehra (injured), Sreesanth and Piyush Chawla (both dropped). Praveen Kumar duly took his place back, having recovered from the elbow injury that had kept him out of the World Cup. He replaces Zaheer Khan, who has been rested.

With five vacancies created - Virender Sehwag being the other - there had been some hype created around the IPL performers in the week leading to the selection meeting. The selectors seem to have learned from the debuts handed to Manpreet Gony and Ashok Dinda based on the first IPL, and also from RP Singh's comeback based on the second IPL. As it turned out, the likes of Ambati Rayudu and Rahul Sharma missed out this time. Badrinath and Rohit were the two top run-getters in the Ranji Trophy first-class competition while Parthiv was the second-highest in the Ranji one-dayers. The exclusion of M Vijay - who has a highest of 33 in 11 ODI innings - makes Parthiv the likeliest candidate to open the innings with the captain, Gambhir.

"I am confident that we will do well and win the series in the West Indies. The team is well balanced," said Kris Srikkanth, India's chairman of selectors. "Everything is on merit. It's a great opportunity for a lot of players.

"On tours, we always take two wicketkeepers. It's a 16-member team and in case of a wicketkeeper getting injured, you have to understand the logistics [of getting a replacement to] in the West Indies [are complicated]."

This is not Gambhir's first shot at leading India - he was the captain when India beat New Zealand 5-0 in ODIs last year. The selectors are believed to be impressed with his leadership skills, and are likely to make him full-time vice-captain ahead of the slightly reluctant Sehwag, although they haven't yet made any formal announcement to that effect.

There was a minor surprise thrown up in the bowling department with Mishra getting in ahead of Pragyan Ojha as the third spinner. In his 16 ODIs - all but three of them against Sri Lanka, who are good players of spin - Ojha has given away runs at only 4.31 an over. However, he was injured before the World Cup and missed the first-class season as well. In the domestic one-dayers, Mishra, with 18 wickets from six games, outperformed Ojha, who managed five in five.

Vinay and Ishant, who have been there or thereabouts, are the only ones to have benefited from good showings in the IPL. It can be argued, though, that they are not unknown commodities and their performances in the IPL have been more of reassurance than first notice. India also picked wicketkeeping cover for Parthiv, making Wriddhiman Saha the 16th member of the squad.

India play one Twenty20 and five ODIs against the hosts beginning with the Twenty20 game on June 4.

Squad: Gautam Gambhir (captain), Suresh Raina, Parthiv Patel (wk), Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, S Badrinath, Rohit Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, R Ashwin, Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel, Vinay Kumar, Yusuf Pathan, Amit Mishra, Wriddhiman Saha (wk).

Indias Winning moments

2011-04-04T08:34:00.000-07:00

Indian Premier League, 2011 Royal Challengers Bangalore Squad

2011-01-11T23:30:00.000-08:00

Indian Premier League, 2011

January 9, 2011

	AB de Villiers Age: 26 years 326 days Playing role: Wicketkeeper batsman Batting: Right-hand bat Bowling: Right-arm medium

	Tillakaratne Dilshan Age: 34 years 87 days Playing role: Allrounder Batting: Right-hand bat Bowling: Right-arm offbreak

	Nuwan Pradeep Age: 24 years 82 days Playing role: Bowler Batting: Right-hand bat Bowling: Right-arm fast-medium

	Mohammad Kaif Age: 30 years 39 days Batting: Right-hand bat Bowling: Right-arm offbreak

	Zaheer Khan Age: 32 years 94 days Playing role: Bowler Batting: Right-hand bat Bowling: Left-arm fast-medium

	Virat Kohli Age: 22 years 65 days Playing role: Middle-order batsman Batting: Right-hand bat Bowling: Right-arm medium

	Charl Langeveldt Age: 36 years 23 days Batting: Right-hand bat Bowling: Right-arm fast-medium

	Abhimanyu Mithun Age: 21 years 76 days Batting: Right-hand bat Bowling: Right-arm medium

	Dirk Nannes Age: 34 years 238 days Batting: Right-hand bat Bowling: Left-arm fast

	Luke Pomersbach Age: 26 years 103 days Playing role: Batsman Batting: Left-hand bat Bowling: Right-arm offbreak

	Cheteshwar Pujara Age: 22 years 349 days Playing role: Batsman Batting: Right-hand bat Bowling: Legbreak

	Rilee Rossouw Age: 21 years 92 days Batting: Left-hand bat Bowling: Right-arm offbreak

	Saurabh Tiwary Age: 21 years 10 days Batting: Left-hand bat

	Johan van der Wath Age: 32 years 364 days Batting: Right-hand bat Bowling: Right-arm medium-fast

	Jonathan Vandiar Age: 20 years 259 days Batting: Left-hand bat Bowling: Legbreak

Daniel Vettori

Age: 31 years 347 days

Playing role: Bowler

Batting: Left-hand bat

Bowling: Slow left-arm orthodox

Eyes on World Cup spots as ODIs begin

2011-01-11T06:40:00.000-08:00

The Preview by Siddhartha Talya

January 11, 2011

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Match Facts

An impressive show in the Twenty20 match and strong batting skills could help Wayne Parnell make the final XI© Getty Images

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Matches: South Africa v India at Durban

Series/Tournaments: India tour of South Africa

Teams: India

January 12, Durban
Start time 14:30 (12.30 GMT, 18.00 IST)

Big Picture

The Test series between the top two teams in international cricket was meant to be this tour's biggest draw, but the ODI series that starts on Wednesday is almost as significant. Bilateral one-dayers are an after-party to a grand event, though not in this case with the World Cup just over a month away and with the teams required to finalise their fifteen-member squads for the event by January 19. Three of the five games in this series - the last official 50-over preparation for the two sides ahead of the World Cup - will be played out before the deadline and they are likely to influence the composition of the final squads.

Injuries to Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir have led to call-ups for Rohit Sharma and M Vijay for the ODI series, though Virat Kohli appears to have done enough in the middle order for his place to be in any risk. There is more competition in the bowling, with a possible tussle between Sreesanth and Munaf Patel for a spot alongside Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar and Ashish Nehra in the fast-bowling attack.Praveen's eleventh-hour injury gives Ishant Sharma, who had an ordinary Test series, another go at the one-day level, though he is almost certain to miss the first game. Piyush Chawla returns to the 50-over format after more than two years, but R Ashwin is the favoured second spinner in the squad, while Harbhajan Singh will look to build on his performance in the Tests.

South Africa have roped in legspinner Imran Tahir and left-arm spinner Robin Peterson, as potential slow-bowling partners to Johan Botha; Colin Ingram, who scored a century on ODI debut, fills in for the injured Jacques Kallis at No.3, and could be in the running for a top-order spot in the World Cup, while David Miller will possibly be fighting for a middle-order slot along with the leg-spinning allrounder Faf du Plessis. The battle for the third seamer's position will be between Lonwabo Tsotsobe and Wayne Parnell, though Ryan McLaren, not playing this series, has also done the job in the past.

South Africa, at home on lively tracks, go in as the favourites. The team coming on top will go into the World Cup on a high, but individual performances in this series could be just as important as the scoreline itself.

Form guide

South Africa: WLWLW
India: WWWWW

Players to watch out for…

Virat Kohli: One of India's in-form batsman, Kohli comes into this series with two centuries and two half-centuries in his last six matches. Almost a certainty in India's World Cup squad, given a successful 2010, an impressive performance in tougher conditions - his only ODI series outside the subcontinent has been in Zimbabwe - should further reaffirm his chances.

Faf du Plessis: He was signed up for US$120,000 at the IPL auctions and will be eager for an ODI debut here. An impressive List A batting average of 44.37 and his abilities as a legpinner makes him a strong contender as an all-round option in South Africa's middle order.

Team news

The teams could shuffle their line-ups for the first few games. Sachin Tendulkar returns to the 50-over format after a self-imposed break - his last ODI was in Gwalior, where he scored that record-breaking double-century against the same opposition.

Praveen's absence puts Munaf in the frame for the third seamer's spot, but India will want to take a good look at the conditions before taking a call on whether to go with two spinners and two fast bowlers.

India (possible): 1 Sachin Tendulkar, 2 M Vijay, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 Suresh Raina, 6 Yusuf Pathan, 7 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 R Ashwin / Munaf Patel, 10 Zaheer Khan, 11 Ashish Nehra

Parnell's impressive show in the Twenty20 match will make it tough for Smith to ignore him. Tsotsobe was in good form against Pakistan in the UAE when Parnell was injured, and the latter's batting credentials could be the clinching factor.

South Africa (possible): 1 Graeme Smith (capt), 2 Hashim Amla, 3 Colin Ingram, 4 AB de Villiers (wk), 5 JP Duminy, 6 Faf du Plessis / Robin Petersen, 7 David Miller, 8 Johan Botha, 9 Dale Steyn, 10 Wayne Parnell / Lonwabo Tsotsobe, 11 Morne Morkel

Stats and trivia

India's have won only three matches and lost 16 against South Africa in South Africa - their worst record in any country
Sachin Tendulkar has scored 1422 runs in South Africa, but only 522 of those have come against the hosts, at an average of 26.10. Rahul Dravid has been the most successful Indian batsman against South Africa in South Africa (512 runs at 51.20)

Siddhartha Talya is a sub editor at Cricinfo

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