We look at India's chances of success in South Africa at the World Twenty20.
Of all the major nations, India have the least international Twenty20 experience with just one match - win over South Africa back in 2006.
Four men involved in that clash - including Dinesh Mongia, Suresh Raina and Zaheer Khan - are not in their 15-man squad headed to the inaugural tournament.
Also excluded from their touring party are Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly, who decided from the outset that they didn't want to join in the festivities in South Africa.
With Mahendra Dhoni now at the helm in the place of regular skipper Dravid, the Indian squad sees the recall of hard-hitting opener Virender Sehwag and spinner Harbhajan Singh who have been in the international wilderness for the past three months or so.
Coupled with the inclusion of Sehwag and Singh is the introduction of rookies Yusuf Pathan and Joginder Sharma and the internationally inexperienced Rohit Sharma. Pathan, the older brother of fellow squad member Irfan, is an off-spinner and hard-hitting batter while Sharma, with a handful of One-dayers under his belt, is a top class middle-order batsman.
Based in Durban and pooled with Scotland and Pakistan in Group D, Dhoni's troops are surely guaranteed one win (against the Scottish, of course) with the match against their fellow Sub-Continental giants on September 14 a surefire spectacle. This 15 headed to SA, is essentially the face of the future of Indian cricket.
Key Player
Having recently made known his hopes of one day captaining his country,
Yuvraj Singh's opportunity to demonstrate his leadership qualities is now. He's proved on many occasion his big-hitting in the middle-order can tear any attack apart and his role with the ball is sure to be key when it's time to take the pace off the ball.
Wildcard
His inclusion in the squad was somewhat of a surprise given the return of Harbhajan Singh, the selection of Yusuf Pathan and Yuvraj and Virender Sehwag's ability to turn their arms over, but 18-year-old leg-spinner
Piyush Chawla has got a big heart and has claimed some equally big scalps in his fledgling career. One to watch, for sure.
Likely To Flop
By far the most perplexing of selections,
Irfan Pathan last played international cricket in January and before that endured a string of unimpressive performances. The powers-that-be insisted on grooming the strike-bowler as an all-rounder and shuffled him up and down the order with mixed success. The tactic took its toll on his bowling and eventually led to them simply discarding him as a batter or bowler. The Twenty20 World Cup provides Pathan an opportunity to revive his career with his beloved nation.
What Could Have Been
A top-order that could have read Sehwag, Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid, Singh, Dhoni. An attack that could have been led by Zaheer Khan and Munaf Patel. Dhoni free to flay the opposition without the responsibility of captaincy weighing down on him. Mohammad Kaif there to step into the fold if any of the epic top-order were not firing.
Squad
Mahendra Dhoni (captain), Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, Ajit Agarkar, Dinesh Karthik, Gautam Gambhir, Robin Uthappa, Joginder Sharma, Yusuf Pathan, Piyush Chawla, Shantha Sreesanth, Irfan Pathan, Rudra Pratap Singh, Rohit Sharma.
