India announces preliminary WT20 squad

Defending champions India announced the 30-member preliminary list for the second edition of the ICC World TwentyT20 2009, which will be played in England.

The inaugural ICC World Twenty20 competition took place in South Africa in September 2007.

The competition, which lasted for just two weeks, was a thrilling event which culminated in India's dramatic five run defeat of Pakistan at Johannesburg.

In all probability India will be led by MS Dhoni and Delhi's dashing opener Virender Sehwag is expected to be his deputy.

R Ashwin, Naman Ojha, Abhishek Nayyar, Ajinkya Rahane and Bengal’s promising wicketkeeper batsman Wriddhiman Saha were some of the newcomers that were announced in the squad.

Interestingly India's T20 star, Joginder Sharma, who famously bowled the last over in the semi-final against Australia and also in the thrilling final against arch-rivals Pakistan, was left out of the squad. Also, Srersanth was excluded from the squad owing to an injury.

Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar was not included in the T20 squad, as the 36-year old batsman had made his intentions clear about not intending to play T20 internationals. The Mumbai maestro is of the opinion that India’s T20 is team is well settled and it would not be right to disturb the combination.

The ICC World Twenty20 2009 will have 12 teams in the men's tournament and eight teams in the women's competition. It will be staged in June 2009 at Lord's, The Oval, Trent Bridge and Taunton.

Squad: Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Irfan Pathan, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Pragyan Ojha, Harbhajan singh, Praveen Kumar, Dinesh Karthik, M Vijay, Ajinkya Rahane, S Badrinath, Robin Uthappa, Virat Kohli, Manoj Tiwary, Wriddhiman Saha, Abhishek Nayar, Amit Mishra, R Ashwin, RP Singh, L Balaji, Dhawal Kulkarni, Naman Ojha.