Yuvraj, Pathan in World Cup T20 squad, Ganguly says he is surprised by Yuvi’s selection

The selectors on Friday played a tactical game, picking as many as eight players who were part of the team that won the first-ever T20 World Cup in 2007, for the fourth edition of the tournament next month, says a Mail Today report, adding that in an apparent move to give Mahendra Singh Dhoni's team a psychological boost in the 12-nation tournament, to be played from September 18 to October 7 in Sri Lanka, they picked Yuvraj Singh and Irfan Pathan, stalwarts who played key roles in India's maiden title-triumph in 2007 World Cup in South Africa.

Five years later, a different set of selectors retained six other players from the Dhoni-led squad to apparently give the team the psychological advantage. They are Gautam Gambhir, who regains vice-captaincy replacing Virat Kohli, Virender Sehwag, an out-of-form Rohit Sharma and comeback spinners Piyush Chawla and Harbhajan Singh, who is still struggling for wickets.

Although the choice of Yuvraj surprised a few people as he has just recovered from cancer and hasn't played any competitive match, he is a proven matchwinner. In the 2007 World Cup, Yuvraj, as a specialist batsman scored 148 runs, including two half-centuries, one of which included six sixes off an over from England Stuart Broad. Significantly, England are again in India's group (the other team is Afghanistan) and Broad is now the captain.

Meanwhile, according to a report in The Hindu, The national selectors left the Cricket Centre here on Friday afternoon after taking decisions that raised a few eyebrows.
“Firstly, they nominated Gautam Gambhir vice-captain for the two Twenty20 matches against New Zealand, and also for the ICC World T20 in Sri Lanka. The committee has also deemed fast-medium bowler Ishant Sharma fit and ready to play the two-Test series against New Zealand. He has not played a first-class or a competitive match in the last six months. Ishant will be part of the three-man pace bowling unit — the others being Zaheer and Umesh Yadav — the selectors chose at the Cricket Centre here on Friday,” says the report.

They have also recalled the 23-year-old leg spinner Piyush Chawla, picking him ahead of Amit Mishra and Rahul Sharma.  He is the third spinner in the side apart from R. Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha.  Left-hander Suresh Raina — whose scores in four Tests against England were 0, 78, 12, 1, 4, 10, 0, 0 — has also been recalled after sitting out the three-Test home series against the West Indies last year and the tour of Australia. The committee also chose Yuvraj Singh and L. Balaji for the Twenty20 matches against New Zealand to be played at Visakhapatnam (Sept.8) and Chennai (Sept.11), and also the ICC World T20 to be played in Sri Lanka from September 18 to October 7.

Meanwhile the inclusion of Yuvraj Singh in the World T20 squad has 'surprised' former skipper Sourav Ganguly, says a report in The Times Of India. "I have no doubt about Yuvraj's quality as a cricketer," he said on Friday.

"He is a class act, but I am not very sure about his fitness. He is recovering from a serious illness and I hope he will be able to withstand the grind of international cricket," he said.