Seems every team and their dogs announced a ICC World twenty20 thingy squad today.
South Africa
No real surprises, Botha is in subject to his arm straightening training.
Kallis is there, his IPL strike rate must have got him the gig.
The squad: Graeme Smith (capt), Johan Botha (vice-capt), Yusuf Abdulla, Mark Boucher, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Herschelle Gibbs, Jacques Kallis, Albie Morkel, Morne Morkel, Justin Ontong, Wayne Parnell, Robbie Peterson, Dale Steyn, Roelof van der Merwe.
India
You could have picked this squad a year ago, maybe without Jadeja, good to see Munaf is out, I don’t care for him.
Squad: MS Dhoni (captain), 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, Irfan Pathan.
Bangladesh
No Dolar Mahmud, shocking. Think of all those puns. Pretty straight forward squad.
Squad: Mohammad Ashraful (capt), Mashrafe Mortaza, Tamim Iqbal, Junaid Siddique, Raqibul Hasan, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Naeem Islam, Abdur Razzak, Shahadat Hossain, Syed Rasel, Mahmudullah, Rubel Hossain, Shamsur Rahman, Mithun Ali.
Pakistan
Worst thing about this squad is that Imran Nazir and Rana Naved aren’t in, a fukedy of the highest order.
Shane Watson’s mate has been picked as well, but he isn’t suspended like Botha is.
Squad: Younis Khan (capt), Salman Butt, Ahmed Shehzad, Shoaib Malik, Misbah-ul-Haq, Shahid Afridi, Kamran Akmal (wk), Fawad Alam, Shoaib Akhtar, Sohail Tanvir, Umar Gul, Mohammad Aamer, Yasir Arafat, Saeed Ajmal, Shahzaib Hasan
Sri Lanka
The ‘Small Wonderhorse’ Chaminda Vaas is left out, the ‘large bucking stallion’ Dilhara Fernando is out too, but the ‘no horse like nickname’ Malinga is back.
Squad: Kumar Sangakkara (capt), Muttiah Muralitharan, Sanath Jayasuriya, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Mahela Jayawardene, Chamara Silva, Angelo Mathews, Ajantha Mendis, Nuwan Kulasekara, Thilan Thushara, Lasith Malinga, Isuru Udana, Farveez Maharoof, Jehan Mubarak, Indika de Saram.
Compared to England’s squad, these are all pretty tame and obvious squads.
Why is it England only take risks with selections, and almost never on the field?
Because, for some reason, England’s cricket philosophy has become, “Turn up and try a couple of things, if they don’t work out, we all have central contracts anyway”.
It will be a near miracle if England make it anywhere close to the semis.. or even improving their 1 win-4 loss record of last time.
Thats what i was thinking.. was today the deadline? If it was, then i’m surprised Pakistan made it! I thought they were waiting for the ICL verdict.. surely they want to take Nazir with them.
I won’t be surprised if Sri Lanka end up winning the tournament. Quite a few of them are in super form in the IPL.