Mahendra Singh Dhoni was today appointed captain of the Indian cricket team for
the upcoming Twenty-20 World Cup in South Africa as the selectors recalled
Virender Sehwag, Irfan Pathan and Harbhajan Singh for the
inaugural edition of the new version of the game.
With regular captain Rahul Dravid making himself unavailable for the event
along with veterans Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly, dashing
Dhoni was expectedly handed the mantle of leading the 15-member team announced
by BCCI Secretary Niranjan Shah here.
Zaheer Khan, who has spearheaded the fast bowling attack brilliantly
in England, was also rested for the September 11-28 tournament where Irfan's
brother Yusuf Pathan will be the lone new face.
The four selectors -- Sanjay Jagdale, Bhupinder Singh Sr.,
Venkatapathy Raju and Ranjib Biswal - had a teleconference with chairman Dilip
Vengsarkar in London before finalising the Twenty-20 squad as well as the
ODI team for the seven-match series against England beginning August 21.
Paceman Sreesanth, who has been far from impressive during
the Test series against England, has been dropped for the ODI series but included
in the Twenty-20 squad.
The injury-prone Munaf Patel will take the Kerala pacer's
place for the series against England with the selectors retaining the same squad
that had played against South Africa and Ireland in June-July.
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