NEW DELHI, 8 August 2007 — Mahendra Dhoni was yesterday appointed captain of the Indian team for the Twenty20 World Cup, to be played in South Africa in September.
Dhoni, the vice captain of the Indian team currently touring England, was elevated to lead the team for the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup in the absence of three star players — Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Saurav Ganguly — who have all led India but dropped out of the Twenty20 tournament.
The squads for the Twenty20 World Cup and the seven-match limited-overs series in England were picked after four selectors had a teleconference with chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar, who is currently in England with the Indian team.
An aggressive batsman and wicketkeeper, Dhoni, 26, is viewed as a long-term candidate for Indian captaincy after being made Dravid’s deputy for the current tour of England.
Left-handed batsman Yuvraj Singh was named Dhoni’s deputy for the Twenty20 World Cup.
Niranjan Shah, secretary of the Indian cricket board, said the Twenty20 World Cup squad includes opening batsman Virender Sehwag, all-rounder Irfan Pathan and off-spinner Harbhajan Singh. They were regular members of the Indian teams for several years until poor form saw them being dropped for the England tour.
The selectors also decided to replace out-of-form pace bowler Shantakumaran Sreesanth with Munaf Patel for the limited-overs series against England.
Patel’s inclusion was the only change in the one-day squad that played limited-overs internationals in Ireland against South Africa and Ireland during June-July.
Sreesanth was included in the team for the Twenty20 World Cup. The selectors decided to rest ace pacer Zaheer Khan from this tournament and included rookie Yusuf Pathan, who is Irfan Pathan’s brother.
Yousuf, Razzaq Out of
Pakistan Twenty20 Squad
In Karachi, Pakistan selectors have excluded senior batsman Mohammad Yousuf and all rounder Abdul Razzaq from the squad for the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa next month.
They have instead recalled batsman Misbah ul-Haq, all-rounder Yasir Arafat and included youngster Fawad Alam in the 15-member party for the Sept. 11-24 tournament. Chief selector Salahuddin Ahmed told a news conference yesterday that selectors felt Yousuf and Razzaq did not fit in as Twenty20 cricket was more suited to younger players and needed agile fielders.
“These two remain our most experienced performers and will top our list when we sit down to pick the teams for the home Test series against South Africa,” he said.
The decision to drop Yousuf and Razzaq comes at a time when both have yet to sign new central contracts offered to them by the Pakistan board. Both are said to have been made lucrative offers by the organizers of a new Indian Twenty20 league.
“The selectors can make their choices, it is their decision,” Yousuf told Reuters. “But I have always maintained that I was keen to play in the Twenty20 form of cricket.” Yousuf, 32, last year set a new Test record for most runs in a calendar year scoring 1,788 runs with nine hundreds and has played in 75 Tests and 241 one-dayers.
Razzaq, 27, has remained Pakistan’s premier all-rounder in the last nine years having played in 231 one-dayers and 46 Tests.
India A Demolish Kenya in
Opening Three-Day Match
In Mombasa, Kenya, India A demolished Kenya by an innings and 98 runs in the first three-day match at the Mombasa Sports Club grounds yesterday.
Kenya resumed on 191-8 and managed to reach 211 all-out.
Indian A medium-pacer Pankaj Singh wiped out the tail, taking the last two Kenyan batsman Peter Ongondo and debutant Elijah Otieno after catching lbw in two consecutive balls. Kenya 211 all out (CO Obuya 51) India A 406-8 dec (S. Badrinath 133 n o, P. Patel 124, P. Chawla 4-31).
