Chawla has played 21 one-dayers for India, along with two Test matches

India have named leg-spinner Piyush Chawla in their 15-man squad for the ICC World Twenty20 in the West Indies.

The 21-year-old has not featured for India since July 2008 and is still uncapped in the Twenty20 format.

But medium-pacer Vinay Kumar, 26, is the only player chosen without any senior international experience.

Record-breaking batsman Sachin Tendulkar ruled himself out of the tournament, which starts on 30 April, despite calls for his inclusion.

Last month, the 36-year-old became the first batsman to score a double hundred in a 50-over one-day international and has been in excellent form for Mumbai Indians in the current Indian Premier League.

However, Tendulkar has only played one Twenty20 match for India in December 2006 and was not part of the team which won the inaugural tournament in South Africa in 2007.

606: DEBATE I think there was an opportunity for selectors to correct the course and put up a brave head in selecting few more youngsters like Manish Pandey, Saurab Tiwary and may be another good young pacer Testodit20

"I have not played T20 internationals from 2007 onwards and I do not think it should become an issue now," said Tendulkar.

Chawla joins fellow spinners Harbhajan Singh and Ravindra Jadeja in the squad, while promising seamer Praveen Kumar has been selected ahead of Ishant Sharma and Sreesanth.

Opener Gautam Gambhir and pace bowler Ashish Nehra have been chosen despite missing recent IPL matches for the Delhi Daredevils because of injuries.

India play their opening World Twenty20 match against Afghanistan in St Lucia on 1 May and, despite a strong South Africa being the third side in their group, they will be confident of doing better than last year in England when they failed to progress beyond the first round.

"The best team has been selected. I am very confident this time we will do very well," chief selector Kris Srikkanth commented.

"Our batting line up is very powerful. In the West Indies, the wicket conditions are generally like what the Indian conditions are. It will suit our kind of bowlers and batsmen."

India Squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar, Ashish Nehra, Vinay Kumar, Dinesh Karthik, Rohit Sharma, Piyush Chawla.

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version