In the absence of Rahul Dravid, who has opted out, Ranchi-born Mahendra
Singh Dhoni is expected to be named captain of the Indian squad for next month's
Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa by the selectors here tomorrow.
The swashbuckling wicket-keeper batsman, who turned 26 on July 7, is set to lead
a team that is likely to include seniors Yuvraj Singh, Ajit Agarkar
and Zaheer Khan, apart from Test and ODI discards Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan
Singh and Mohd Kaif.
With Dravid and two other ex-captains Sachin Tendulkar and
Sourav Ganguly skipping the September 11-28 tournament to give chances to youngsters,
some new faces may get the nod apart from the experienced but out-of-favour
trio Sehwag, Harbhajan and Irfan Pathan.
The selectors have already short-listed the 30 probables and will prune it
down to 15.
The ODI team for the seven-match ODI series against England
is also to be chosen tomorrow and the selectors are likely to retain team that
vanquished South Africa in the three-match off-shore ODI series in Ireland in
June.
Question marks persist on Shantakumaran Sreesanth who
breached the ICC Code of Conduct during the second Test against England which
India won at Trent Bridge to go 1-0 up in the series.
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