Selectors announce 15-member India squad for World Cup

India's cricket selectors Monday selected a 15-member squad for the World Cup starting Feb 19 in the sub-continent.

The squad includes eight batsmen, four pacers and three spinners.

Skipper Dhoni will be the lone wicket keeper for the entire tournament.

Spinners will play a major role in the World, Krishnamachari Srikkanth, chairman of the cricket board's selection committee, said, justifying the inclusion of three tweakers in the Indian squad for the quadrennial event.

"Spinners will play a major role in the sub-continent. That's why we have picked up three spinners in the squad. I hope this team will match the performance of the 1983 World Cup winning team," he said after the squad was announced.

"I am hopeful that we will win the World Cup. This team has some great players and we have done well consistently, both in India and abroad," he said.

Rohit Sharma has missed his spot in this edition of the World Cup despite being in a good form in South Africa.

Also, pacers S. Sreesanth and Ishant Sharma have been axed from the team.

The World Cup will be co-hosted by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. India open their campaign against Bangladesh in Dhaka Feb 19.

Squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain/wicketkeeper), Virender Sehwag (vice captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Praveen Kumar, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Munaf Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin and Piyush Chawla.

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