Sport

Sehwag, Pathan make the cut

G. Viswanath

THE THINK-TANK: Rahul Dravid, Niranjan Shah, BCCI secretary, and Dilip Vengsarkar, Chairman of the Selection Committee, announce the squad for the World Cup.

Mumbai: Rahul Dravid stuck his neck out for the beleaguered Virender Sehwag's selection in the Indian team for the ICC World Cup to be played in the West Indies in March-April. The choice of Sehwag — 299 runs from 11 World Cup matches in the 2003 competition in South Africa — fell upon the India captain whose decision to back him was clear after he had said in Rajkot on Sunday that Sehwag looked good as long as he was in the middle.

The 15-member team picked by the five national selectors, Dravid and coach Greg Chappell, is the same chosen for the first two one-day internationals against Sri Lanka on February 3.

The make up of the team for the remaining two matches against Sri Lanka to be played at Goa and Vishakapatnam though has changed with the inclusion of Suresh Raina and Rudra Pratap Singh.

"Yuvraj Singh and Irfan Pathan are fit to play now, but we have picked Raina and R.P. Singh as back up.

"If there is slight doubt about their (Yuvraj and Irfan) fitness we do not want to risk them for the two games," said Dilip Vengsarkar, Chairman of the selection committee.

This is not for the first time though that Dravid has gone out of the way to push for Sehwag's selection. Recently he opted for Sehwag in the third Test against South Africa that India lost. On Monday, Dravid diffused the somewhat irritating issue of Sehwag's selection for the World Cup in a matter of minutes by telling the selectors that he would pick a proven performer.

A gentle reminder

But at the press conference, Dravid gently reminded the dashing batsman that the selectors have placed faith in him and that the ball is in his court to vindicate it.

"The onus is on him now. He has been shown the faith by the selection committee and it's up to him, now,'' said Dravid.

He further added that he was quite excited about the team. "It all boils down to seven key players and how the others perform around this group. The focus should be on that. If six or seven key players perform well, we will have a very good World Cup."

Talking about the fielding potential of the team, following his recent remarks that some players cannot be brilliant he said: "It's a question of being smart, putting people in the right places, ensure they practice rigorously for those positions. What we may lack in fielding, we have to make up with individual performances with the bat and ball and players have to take that extra responsibility to finish games. I am quite confident going to the World Cup. A lot of guys in this group do realise that this is going to be their last shot at the world Cup. And I am hoping that those guys stand up and be counted in the two months."

Unlucky

When asked about Suresh Raina not being included he said: "At the end of the day, a lot of players select themselves. You select yourself with your own performance and with the way you play. I think not only Suresh but Ramesh (Powar) and a few others would feel unlucky to have missed out. In the end, you will always have one or two disappointed people. It's a challenge to grab your opportunity so no questions are ever asked of them."

Vengsarkar said that Sreesanth was always in the running for selection. "He changed his length and bowled extremely well at Rajkot. I am extremely happy with Munaf's bowling. He also got wickets in the two matches at Kolkata and Rajkot. Anil (Kumble) is an experienced bowler. He has done reasonably well. Hope he will do well in the West Indies. It was not a close close call between Robin (Uthappa) and Gautam (Gambhir). Robin did extremely well in two of the matches he played.

"Many players have done well against the West Indies and Sri Lanka, except may be one or two. We have to go with experienced players. It is a huge event. This event will excite them to do well. That's what we expect them to do." Dravid said that some players, who have not taken as much work load as the others against the West Indies and Sri Lanka would play one or two matches of the All Stars Series competition to be played at Ahmedabad and Mumbai.

THE WORLD CUP SQUAD

Rahul Dravid (captain),
Sachin Tendulkar (vice-captain),
Sourav Ganguly,
Virender Sehwag,
Yuvraj Singh,
Robin Uthappa,
Dinesh Karthik, Mahendra Singh Dhoni,
Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar,
Munaf Patel, S. Sreesanth, Irfan Pathan.

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