Mumbai: Five big players have been left out of the 30 probables for ICC World Cup 2015, as announced on Thursday.
Delhi duo Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh - the player of the tournament in 2011, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh won’t be seen in action when Team India start their title defence next year in Australia – New Zealand.
The preliminary list of 30 Indian probables for the upcoming World Cup in Australia and New Zealand was finalised here on Thursday by the national selectors, who did not include a few proven but currently out-of-form cricketers. A hero in the 2011 World Cup but currently out-of-sorts opener Virender Sehwag had said on Tuesday, that he still had World Cup dreams.
MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Robin Uthappa, Ambati Rayudu, Kedar Jadhav, Manoj Tiwary, Parvez Rasool, Karn Sharma, Mohammad Shami, Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron, D Kulkarni, S Binny, Mohit Sharma, Asoke Dinda, Wriddhiman Saha, Manish Pandey, Sanju Samson, R Ashwin, Amit Mishra, Ravindra Jadeja, A Patel, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuleep Yadav, M Vijay
Former India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar said: "It is a topsy turvy game. Anybody can score a hundred today and not do well the next day. Had they been in form in domestic cricket, they would have definitely been in contention. But they were not in good form."
Co-incidentally, Gambhir scored a fighting 97 when India thrashed Sri Lanka in the World Cup final at the Wankhede Stadium in 2011 but once he fell out of favour, he could not impress in domestic cricket. Speedstar Zaheer Khan looked lacklustre and injury-prone too.
In fact, newcomers like Akshar Patel and Sanju Samson made it count whenever they got a chance - be it in the Indian Premier League (IPL) or the recently concluded series against Sri Lanka. Wriddhiman Saha's brilliant hundred in IPL might have held him in good stead, his wicket-keeping skills were already much talked about.
“Captain's view has already been considered, things were discussed with him,” said Patel.
“Process has already been completed, there is no scope, provided some extraordinary thing happens. The preference of selectors was purely based on present performance and requirement of time,” he added.
The final 15-man squad will be announced next month. The World Cup is to be played in Australia and New Zealand from February 14 to March 29.
