New Delhi:
First things first. Sachin Tendulkar, the man in form who powered his Mumbai Indians to the top of the IPL 3 points table last night, is sticking to his stand on international T20 and will not play the World Cup.
The BCCI announced India's squad of 15 for the T20 World Cup after a meeting on Friday. Mahendra Singh Dhoni will captain the side, Virendra Sehwag will be vice-captain. The tournament will be played in West Indies immediately after IPL 3, in April end and May.
Opener Gautam Gambhir, sitting out the IPL recovering from a hamstring injury is part of the squad. As is injured left-arm pacer Ashish Nehra, whose last competitive tie was against South Africa in the second ODI at Gwalior on February 24. India will be hoping both can play.
Piyush Chawla and Vinay Kumar are the new additions. Virat Kohli and Pragyan Ohja have been left out. Ishant Sharma, Irfan Pathan and RP Singh also fail to make it to the squad.
The complete squad consists of:
Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Captain and Wicketkeeper)
Virender Sehwag (Vice Captain)
Gautam Gambhir
Yuvraj Singh
Suresh Raina
Yusuf Pathan
Ravindra Jadeja
Harbhajan Singh
Zaheer Khan
Piyush Chawla
Dinesh Karthik
Ashish Nehra
Praveen Kumar
Vinay Kumar
Rohit Sharma
The Tournament will take place in April-May 2010.