India drop Sehwag for Champions Trophy
NEW DELHI, April 6, (AFP) - India's selectors on Saturday left out
dashing batsman Virender Sehwag from a 30-man preliminary squad for the
Champions Trophy in England in June.
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Sehwag drop for Champions Trophy
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Seasoned off-spinner Harbhajan Singh and veteran seamer Zaheer Khan
were also missing from the list, which has to be shortened to 15 players
a month before the one-day tournament opens on June 5.
Sehwag's 219 against the West Indies in December 2011 is the highest
individual score in one-day internationals and he is only the second
batsman to score a double-century in the shorter format after compatriot
Sachin Tendulkar.
But he was dropped due to recent poor form. The 34-year-old, who has
scored 8,273 runs in 251 ODIs with 15 centuries, was also been left out
of the last two Tests in the recent series against Australia, which
India won 4-0.
Harbhajan, 32, last played an ODI two years ago in the West Indies,
while Zaheer, 34, missed the entire Australian series due to a calf
injury.
Uncapped off-spinner Parvez Rasool, 24, was included in the squad,
making him the first cricketer from Jammu and Kashmir to join the senior
ranks.India are drawn with South Africa, Pakistan and the West Indies in
group B of the Champions Trophy, from which the top two will qualify for
the semi-finals.The other group comprises England, Australia, New
Zealand and Sri Lanka.
India's 30-man preliminary squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Murali Vijay,
Shikhar Dhawan, Gautam Gambhir, Unmukt Chand, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh,
Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Manoj Tiwary, Ajinkya Rahane, Ambati Rayudu,
Kedar Jadhav, Wriddhiman Saha, Dinesh Karthik, Ravichandran Ashwin, Amit
Mishra, Ravindra Jadeja, Jalaj Saxena, Parvez Rasool, Ishant Sharma,
Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ashok Dinda, Umesh Yadav, Shami Ahmed, Irfan Pathan,
Vinay Kumar, Praveen Kumar, Ishwar Pandey, Sidharth Kaul.
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