T20 Worldcup Teams
Australian Team For 2009 T-20 World Cup:
Brett Lee, Shane Watson and Andrew Symonds have successfully fended off the strong challenges of rival contenders to be named in Australia’s 15-man squad for the World Twenty20. Despite limited preparation, the experienced trio will be heavily relied upon as Australia seek to improve on their disappointing showing in the inaugural 20-over tournament in South Africa in 2007.
Michael Hussey has also retained his place in the side after indifferent form of late, and along with his brother David, they have squeezed the impressive Callum Ferguson out of the squad. James Hopes successfully retained the third allrounder’s berth, while Nathan Hauritz was preferred as the team’s specialist spinner over Cameron White.
David Warner, meanwhile, retained his place at the top of the order and will hope for more game time with the Delhi Daredevils in the IPL to sharpen his skills before the World Twenty20.
Speaking before the squad announcement, Australia’s coach Tim Nielsen was confident Lee and Watson would be ready for the World Twenty20 despite their truncated preparations “It’s not ideal obviously,” Nielsen said. “Having said that, they’ve bowled a lot in the nets. There’s still another month before the Twenty20 world champs, and both of them will go and play some IPL after Thursday.”
Squad: Ricky Ponting (C), Michael Clarke (VC), Brad Haddin (WK), David Warner, Michael Hussey, David Hussey, James Hopes, Andrew Symonds, Shane Watson, Mitchell Johnson, Brett Lee, Peter Siddle, Ben Hilfenhaus, Nathan Bracken, Nathan Hauritz.
Bangladesh Team For T20 World Cup 2009:
The Bangladesh Squad for the ICC World Twenty20 in England was announced today with exciting young batting prospects Shamsur Rahman and Mohammad Mithun earning call ups to the senior team for the first time. The average age of the squad is under 24, and boasts no player over 26.
“Shamsur Rahman has come through the ranks. He has played for the Under 19s, Academy side and A Team and has had a fabulous season where he scored 1485 runs in all competitions. He gives us an interesting option in the top order. Mithun has no fear and can be an asset in the Twenty20 version with his hard-hitting approach. Besides, he has been among the runs and has made 1479 this season with a strike rate of 88,” said Chairman of Selectors Rafiq Ul Alam.
The team has four specialist pacemen with tearaway Rubel Hossain getting the nod ahead of the more experienced Nazmul Hossain and Mahbubul Alam. “Rubel is the quickest bowler in the country and has had an encouraging debut season in international cricket. He is someone who can hurry the batsmen and use the short ball to good effect,” added Alam.
The Chairman of Selectors felt that the team had the potential to perform in England. “If you look at the side we have picked you’ll find that this is a nice blend of experience and youth. This is a good fielding unit with some explosive batsmen and proven slow bowlers. We have the pace of (Masrafe) Mortaza, Shahadat and Rubel and the left-arm swing and seam of Syed Rasel. There are allrounders like Shakib (Al Hasan), Naeem (Islam) and Mahmud Ullah. The best thing is that the boys have played together for a long time at different levels and form the nucleus of the national team that has also performed creditably against New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe. We made it to the Super Eight in the last World T20 competition and the initial target will be to repeat that and I am very hopeful that we’ll play some quality cricket in England.”
The Bangladesh side will start their final preparation phase for the World Twenty20 on 13 May. They have practice matches lined up against the Bangladesh A Team on May 13 (two matches) and 15 and against the visiting Maharashtra Cricket Association side on May 17, 18 and 19. All matches will be held at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka. The Tigers are scheduled to leave for England on May 23 and will play additional warm-up games at Wormsley on May 26 (against New Zealand) and May 29 (against Scotland) and then travel to Kent to face Netherlands on May 28. Bangladesh’s official practice games are against Australia (on 01 June) and Sri Lanka (on 04 June) at Nottingham.
Squad: Mohammad Ashraful (Captain), Masrafe Bin Mortaza (Vice Captain), Tamim Iqbal, Zunaed Siddique, Roqibul Hassan, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Naeem Islam, Abdur Razzak, Kazi Shahadat Hossain, Syed Rasel, Mahmud Ullah, Rubel Hossain, Shamsur Rahman, Mohammad Mithun.
England possible Squad For Twenty20 World Cup
Test and ODI regular captain Andrew Strauss has been left out of England’s preliminary 30-man squad for the Twenty20 World Cup in June, which was announced at Lord’s on Monday.
A preliminary squad of 30 players was named today which will be cut to 15 for the 16-day tournament, which starts on June 5 in England.
England national selector Geoff Miller said in a statement: “Andrew Strauss had an outstanding tour of the West Indies during a difficult winter. Andrew and the selectors believe his game is better suited to Test and ODI cricket and it is for that reason he has not been selected in the squad.”
“The selectors will name the England Twenty20 captain once a comprehensive review of the recently concluded West Indies tour has taken place.”
Strauss took over the Test and One-day captaincy from Kevin Pietersen in January despite not playing any One-Day Internationals for almost two years.
The Yorkshire all-rounder Tim Bresnan, who last played for England in August 2008, has also been included along with Kabir Ali, Liam Plunkett, Chris Tremlett, and Sajid Mahmood, all fast bowlers with international experience.
The 30-man squad, which will be trimmed to 15 on May 1, contains four players yet to be capped at international level, Joe Denly (Kent), Eoin Morgan (Middlesex), Graham Napier (Essex) and Adil Rashid (Yorkshire).
England Provisional Squad: Kevin Pietersen, Kabir Ali, James Anderson, Gareth Batty, Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Paul Collingwood, Stephen Davies, Joe Denly, James Foster, Andrew Flintoff, Stephen Harmison, Rob Key, Sajid Mahmood, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Eoin Morgan, Graham Napier, Samit Patel, Liam Plunkett, Matt Prior, Adil Rashid, Owais Shah, Ryan Sidebottom, Graeme Swann, Chris Tremlett, Shaun Udal, Chris Woakes, Luke Wright.
Indian T-20 Squad For World Cup 2009:
UP fast bowler RP Singh was on Monday rewarded for his consistent performance in the ongoing IPL with a recall while fellow speedster Munaf Patel was dropped from India’s 15-member squad for next month’s Twenty20 World Cup in England.
Wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik, who figured in India’s squad that played the last Twenty20 in New Zealand in February end, has also been dropped from the squad which has no major surprises. Hard-hitting batsman Robin Uthappa has also been omitted.
The squad includes five specialist batsmen, five specialist pacers, two spinners, two all-rounders and a wicket-keeper in Dhoni.
The selectors had earlier announced a list of 30 probables for the event to be held in England from June 5-21 and today pruned it to the final 15. All participating teams have to submit the final squad by May 5 as per the ICC rules.
Squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (c and wk), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Rohit Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, RP Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Pragyan Ojha and Irfan Pathan.
Ireland Squad For Twenty20 World Cup
Ireland have named their 15-man squad for the ICC World Twenty20 which takes place in England later this year.
18-year-old batsman Paul Stirling joins a squad made up largely of experienced players, with Stirling effectively replacing Eoin Morgan, who was picked to represent England in the same tournament.
Coach Phil Simmons explained “Paul has been in such good form in the Friends Provident Trophy, with two exceptional knocks. It’s not just been the fact that he’s scored runs, but the manner in which he has played. He’s been confident, powerful and dominant. It’s hard to believe that innings of such maturity come from one so young. He looks the part and has a great attitude to the game which will stand him in good stead in years to come.
“Andre [Botha] will undergo rigorous testing on his ankle in 2-3 weeks time, and we’ll make a final decision then. He definitely won’t bowl in the tournament, but I’d be very confident he can play a major role with the bat. We have struggled a bit with the ball in the current Friends Provident campaign, but we’ll have a lot of experience coming back in Trent Johnston and Alex Cusack, as well as big Boyd (Rankin).”
Ireland take on Bangladesh and India in Group A and the tournament begins on 5th June.
Squad: William Porterfield (captain), Andrew Botha, Jeremy Bray, Peter Connell, Alex Cusack, Trent Johnston, Kyle McCallan, John Mooney, Kevin O’Brien, Niall O’Brien, Boyd Rankin, Paul Stirling, Regan West, Andrew White, Gary Wilson
Middlesex and Victoria seamer Dirk Nannes has been included in the Netherlands squad for the upcoming World Twenty20 2009 in England.
The son of Dutch migrant parents, Nannes, 32, holds a Dutch passport and has played for Middlesex in county cricket and Victoria on the Australian domestic circuit. He has also met with success in this season’s IPL with Delhi Daredevils, picking up six wickets from the six matches so far at 24.33.
Jeroen Smits will once again be leading the squad, after captaining them to a third-place finish at the ICC World Cup Qualifiers. Mohammad Kashif, the 24-year-old right-arm spinner, is the only member missing from the qualifiers squad.
Squad: Jeroen Smits (C & WK), Peter Borren, Ryan ten Doeschate, Tom De Grooth, Maurits Jonkman, Alexei Kervezee, Dirk Nannes, Ruud Nijman, darren Reekers, Edgar Schiferli, Pieter Seelaar, Mudassar Buhkari, Eric Szwarczynski, Dan van Bunge, Bas Zuiderent.
New Zealand Team For T20 World Cup 2009:
New Zealand have announced its playing squad for the ICC World Twenty20, to be played in England from June 5-21 in England. Injury-prone allrounder Jacob Oram had been selected on the assumption that he was fully fit otherwise out of additional 15 men squad, any replacement or cover players will be selected.
Head of the selection panel, Glenn Turner, said the fickle English climate had presented a challenge in selecting the side. “We’re really not sure what conditions will prevail in early June,” he said. “But being able to take 15 players means we have hopefully been able to cover all angles,” he added.
Four other players are recalled to the squad after being absent from the side which played two T20s against India: Peter McGlashan was part of the T20 squad in Australia in February, and last played against Sri Lanka in 2006; Franklin played against Australia in February, while Mills and Styris turned out in T20 games against the West Indies in December.
“In selecting the side we have been particularly conscious of selecting players in the middle and lower order who are boundary hitters. We have retained aggressive but more orthodox batsman in the top order – and we’re looking for that extra aggression lower down the order as well,” he maintained.
Diamanti has yet to play in International Twenty20 matches, but was part of the T20 squad against Australia in February. He comes into the side after good form in this season’s State Shield, with a batting average of 47.6 and strike rate of 102, and a bowling economy rate of 5.77 in State Twenty20 games.
Turner said wicketkeeper-batsman Peter McGlashan had proven himself as a good improviser in the middle order, and was well suited to the 20-over game. “Brendon Diamanti is another whose skills fit the short game format – he’s a good striker of the ball an excellent fielder and has good skills with the ball.”
The squad will travel to England in mid-May and will hold a training camp before the competition starts. Warm-up matches begin on Monday 1 June, with New Zealand playing India at Lord’s, then facing Australia at the Oval the following day.
Squad: Daniel Vettori (captain), Neil Broom, Ian Butler, Brendon Diamanti, James Franklin, Martin Guptill, Brendon McCullum, Nathan McCullum, Peter McGlashan, Kyle Mills, Iain O’Brien, Jacob Oram, Jesse Ryder, Scott Styris, Ross Taylor.
Pakistan possible Squad For Twenty20 World Cup
Pakistan have included three players in their preliminary squad for the Twenty20 World Cup that are banned from the national team because of their contracts with the rebel Indian Cricket League.
Abdul Razzaq, Rana Naved and Imran Nazir were named in the 30-man squad from which the selectors will shortlist the final 15 for the tournament in England in June.
Chief selector Abdul Qadir told a news conference on Monday that the trio would only be retained in the squad if they were cleared by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and the International Cricket Council (ICC).
“We have Razzaq, Hasan and Nazir in the preliminary squad but their inclusion in the final team will depend on clearance from the ICC,” Abdul Qadir said.
The three are among 17 players contracted by the ICL who were recently allowed by the Sindh High Court to play domestic cricket but they are still banned from representing Pakistan.
Also included in the squad is Shoaib Akhtar, who had earlier been named in a 15-man squad for the ODI series against Australia in the UAE.
Razzaq and Naved, along with senior batsman Mohammad Yousuf, had informed the PCB they were willing to forgo their ICL contracts if they were reconsidered for national selection.
Pakistan Provisional Squad: Younis Khan (C), Salman Butt, Nasir Jamshed, Khalid Latif, Shahzab Hasan, Umar Amin, Ahmed Shahzad, Misbah-ul-Haq, Faisal Iqbal, Fawad Alam, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi, Sohail Tanvir, Yasir Arafat, Kamran Younis, Shoaib Akhtar, Umar Gul, Rao Iftikhar, Aitzaz Cheema, Mohammad Aamir, Wahab Riaz, Imran Ali, Danish Kaneria, Yasir Shah, Kamran Akmal, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Abdul Razzaq, Rana Naved, Imran Nazir, Abdul Rehman.
Scotland possible Squad For Twenty20 World Cup
The squad consists of the 25 players who were previously selected for the national squad with the addition of Matthew Parker and Stuart Chalmers. The final squad of 15 will be announced on May 5.
Parker made his debut for Scotland last season and spent the last three months playing and training in Australia as part of his commitment to the full time cricket performance course at Telford College in Edinburgh. Chalmers was picked in a national squad for the first time after impressing the coaches and selectors over the last couple of seasons and during the winter training sessions.
Scotland have been grouped with New Zealand and South Africa for the World Twenty20. They will play warm-up games against England and the Netherlands on june 2 and 3.
Scotland Provisional Squad: John Blain, Richie Berrington, Stuart Chalmers, Kyle Coetzer, Gordon Drummond, Gordon Goudie, Gavin Hamilton, Majid Haq, Omer Hussain, Moneeb Iqbal, Dougie Lockhart, Ross Lyons, Neil McCallum, Callum MacLeod, Dewald Nel, Navdeep Poonia, Glenn Rogers, Qasim Sheikh, Craig Wright, Gregor Maiden, Matthew Parker, Colin Smith, Simon Smith, Jan Stander, Fraser Watts, Sean Weeraratna, Ryan Watson.
Sri Lanka possible Squad For Twenty20 World Cup
Indikade Saram was included by the national selectors along with four other players – Tissara Perera, Gayan Wijekoon, Milinda Siriwardene and Lahiru Thirimanne – expanding the squad’s strength to 30.
de Saram was surprisingly left out of the provisional squad of 25 picked by the selectors prior to the Twenty20 tournament last month, but performed exceptionally well to earn a recall to the national squad.
He is the leading batsman in the tournament with 232 runs at an average of 58 and a strike-rate of 147.77. He has also hit the most number of sixes (12) and fours (18) in the tournament so far with a top score of 94.
He made his debut for Sri Lanka at home against the Australians in 1999. However, he was in the sidelines for nearly eight years before he was recalled for the Twenty20 international against India this February.
Ruhuna play Wayamba in one semi-final of the Twenty20 tournament on Saturday.
Sri Lanka Provisional Squad: Kumar Sangakkara (c), Muttiah Muralitharan (vc), Sanath Jayasuriya, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Mahela Jayawardene, Chamara Kapugedera, Jehan Mubarak, Chamara Silva, Angelo Mathews, Farveez Maharoof, Nuwan Kulasekara, Thilan Thushara, Lasith Malinga, Chaminda Vaas, Ajantha Mendis, Kaushal Weeraratne, Upul Tharanga, Isuru Udana, Dilhara Lokuhettige, Chintaka Jayasinghe, Nuwan Zoysa, Gihan Rupasinghe, Thilina Kandamby, Malinga Bandara, Dilhara Fernando, Indika de Saram, Thisara Perera, Gayan Wijekoon, Milinda Siriwardene, Lahiru Thirimanne.
South African Team For T20 World Cup 2009:
Under scanner for his suspect action, South African spinner Johan Botha was on Monday appointed deputy to captain Graeme Smith while teen batting sensation Wayne Parnell was also included in the 15-member squad for next month’s Twenty20 World Championship in England.
Botha, who has been reported to ICC for suspect action for the second time in his career this year during the One-day series against Australia, has to undergo tests to prove the legality of his action but remains eligible for selection.
The 19-year-old Parnell, meanwhile, created quite a flutter by becoming South African cricketer to bag a central contract.
“All players are in good form and it is particularly pleasing to have so many quality all-rounders at our disposal. As always, there are a couple of unlucky players and that emphasises the excellent competition we have for places,” chief selector Mike Procter said in a statement.
“Form in the Standard Bank Pro20 domestic competition was a key factor in our selection process and it was encouraging to note how high the standard of our domestic cricket is at the moment,” he added.
The rest of the squad offers little surprises and has regulars like in-form JP Duminy, Herschelle Gibbs and Jacques Kallis.
Pacer Yusuf Abdulla, who tops the wicket-takers’ list in the Indian Premier League right now, has also been included.
Squad: Graeme Smith (c), Herschelle Gibbs, Johan Botha (vc), AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Jacques Kallis, Mark Boucher (wk), Albie Morkel, Morne Morkel, Justin Ontong, Wayne Parnell, Robbie Peterson, Dale Steyn, Yusuf Abdulla, Roelof van der Merwe.
West Indies T-20 Squad For World Cup 2009:
Xavier Marshall, the Jamaica batsman, has been recalled to the West Indies side for the World Twenty20. His team-mate, the allrounder Dave Bernard who is currently part of the team also been picked for next month’s tournament.
Chris Gayle leads the full-strength 15-man squad, with Denesh Ramdin as his deputy. The only player from the side that was selected for West Indies’ previous Twenty20 (against England in Trinidad) to miss out is opener Devon Smith.
The explosive but inconsistent Marshall had been a part of the New Zealand tour late last year and also played the first Test against England in February before losing his place after an extended lean patch.
Squad: Chris Gayle (captain), Denesh Ramdin (vice captain & wicket keeper), Xavier Marshall, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Lendl Simmons, Lionel Baker, Sulieman Benn, David Bernard jnr., Dwayne Bravo, Fidel Edwards, Andre Fletcher, Kieron Pollard, Darren Sammy, Jerome Taylor.