Yuvraj Singh is one of the senior players who has struggled to do well in recent times © kareem
The list of 30 Indian probables for the upcoming ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 in Australia and New Zealand is to be finalised on Thursday by the national selectors, which may include a few proven, however, currently out-of-form cricketers.
The meeting of the five-member selection panel headed by Sandeep Patil is scheduled for 1 PM, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary, Sanjay Patel, informed PTI.
Among the proven performers, who are currently not in top form, but were members of the victorious 2011 squad, are Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Harbhajan Singh and Ashish Nehra.
Yuvraj, who won the Player of the Tournament award in the 2011 World Cup, has been out of form with the bat recently. It would be interesting to see if the selectors feel he is still good enough to be included in the preliminary list, before it is pruned down to 15 by January 7. The 32-year-old left-hander scored only one half century in the recent Vijay Hazare Trophy and failed in the only innings he figured for North Zone in the Deodhar Trophy.
Another top performer with the bat, who is especially suited for Australian conditions is Virender Sehwag. The Delhi batsman like Yuvraj, has done little to impress the selection panel in recent times. His scores, barring an innings of 80 against Haryana in the North Zone one-day league, are nothing much to write home about.
His Delhi opening partner, Gautam Gambhir, also a member of the victorious 2011 ensemble, has shown much better form and looks the more likely candidate to be among those picked in the preliminary list.
Both Harbhajan Singh and the left-arm pacer, Ashish Nehra, are also in contention. It would not come as a big surprise if they are picked in the squad because of their experience. Nehra is perhaps the fittest among the leading left-arm pace exponents at present, with both Zaheer Khan and Irfan Pathan still having fitness problems.
Otherwise, the selectors are expected to retain the 14 names that they selected for the last two home ODIs against Sri Lanka along with players, who were rested like MS Dhoni, Ishant Sharma, Varun Aaron, Mohammad Shami, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Shikhar Dhawan and Ravindra Jadeja.
Bengal batsman, Manoj Tiwary, who slammed a brilliant 151 for East Zone against North Zone in the Deodhar Trophy semi-final, is a prime candidate for selection. The selectors might even look at someone like Mumbai's Ranji Trophy skipper, Suryakumar Yadav, for his ability to play blistering knocks, as he showed in his innings of 80 for West Zone against South Zone.
Manish Pandey, Mayank Agarwal, Saurashish Lahiri and Baba Aparajith are also said to be in the reckoning.
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