India’s ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 Squad Holds Few Surprises

by Sreelata S. Yellamrazu

   The one thing exciting about the World Cup besides the World Cup itself is the announcement of the teams and Monday was no different, as most Mondays are, except that the lucky fifteen Indian cricketers had their names announced amidst a great deal of hopes, expectations and animation from the chairman of selectors as they stake claim in front of home crowds for a trophy that has remained elusive since 1983.
  Krishnamachari Srikkanth announced the Indian team for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 to be led by the Indian captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni. And it would come as no surprise that Sachin Tendulkar is easily the torch bearer for the Indian ambition at the forthcoming tournament. Helping him engage the opposition in an all frontal assault would be Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag. The middle has been bolstered by the presence of the young dynamo Virat Kohli, the all rounder void filler in Yusuf Pathan and the ambitions of Yuvraj Singh.

   
    The fast bowling department was a reflection of Dhoni’s concerns and those that had the captain’s faith appeared to feature on the list that included Ashish Nehra, Munaf Patel, Praveen Kumar and Zaheer Khan who will no doubt spearhead the attack while the first on the list is being hoped on for a full recovery from poor form at the expense of a hopeful Sreesanth whose heartbreak was quickly known to the world via the social network phenomenon of Twitter.

         The Indian selectors have decided that packing the team with spinners would be a no-brainer and much appreciated. However, their choice of Piyush Chawla to partner the new burden holder of being the bowling all rounder, Harbhajan Singh left many eyebrows twisted while Ravichandran Ashwin has managed to impress far quickly than Rohit Sharma has with the bat to make sure he made the list of fifteen.

        Can they match the daredevilry of Kapil Dev's 1983 Indian team that won the 1983 World Cup? Time will tell.