India after losing series to England, reach SA for twenty-20 World Cup, This news catching headlines in nearly all the papers. Is there ant real chance for India to win this world cup? Absence of Tendulkar, Dravid & Ganguly become quite important when we consider Indian chances.
In India, cricket lovers are keeping their fingers crossed over the question of India’s chances in this first twenty-20 world cup. India’s interest in this form of cricket has been Luke warm so far. While most of the international teams have already played quite a few number of such matches among themselves, India can boast of having played only one international match so far and that too more than 9 months ago. Even Kenya and Bangladesh have played more such matches. It is to India’s credit that although inexperienced, they recorded an emphatic 6 wickets victory over South Africa Africa in the former’s debut match!
The “new look” Indian team which will participate in the September 11-24 showpiece, will also be without the names like Zahir Khan, Munaf Patil, Ramesh power. The mercurial Mahendra Singh Dhoni will lead the team with the dashing Yuvraj Singh as his deputy. Other known faces of the Indian team which will be seen in the T-20 world cup are Virendra Singh Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan, Gautam Gambhir, Robin Uthappa, Dinesh Kartic, Ajit Agarkar, Piyush Chawala, S.Sreesanth and Joginder Sharma. Rohit Sharma of Mumbai and Irfan’s brother Yusuf will complete the 15 member squad. As is clear from the list of the players, the Indian team will be one of the most under-prepared ones to participate in this world cup. The players had hardly any opportunity to adjust themselves in the format of T-20 cricket. More than half of the 15 member squad was busy playing test and one day cricket in England till recently, 8th September 2007 to be exact. There is a fear that these players might already be very tired and jaded as there already away from their home for over a couple of months.
For some of the players of the India team, the tournament will be a great opportunity to rehabilitate themselves in the Indian test or one day squads. This is very true with test discards – Virendra Sehwag, Irfan Pathan and Harbhajan Singh. The tournament also opens up opportunities for all rounders like Yusuf Pathan and Joginder Sharma. The Indian test and one day teams will soon be in the re-building process and Gautam Gambhir, robin Uthappa, Dinesh Kartik who are already in the Indian team, should use this T-20 world up championship to cement their places in the national squad for the bigger versions of the game.
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