ICC Champions Trophy – full team-by-team guide
Group A
Australia: Ricky Ponting (capt), Michael Clarke, Nathan Bracken, Callum Ferguson, Nathan Hauritz, Ben Hilfenhaus, James Hopes, Mike Hussey, Mitchell Johnson, Brett Lee, Peter Siddle, Adam Voges, Shane Watson, Cameron White.
India: Mahendra Dhoni (capt), Yuvraj Singh, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Ashish Nehra, RP Singh, Ishant Sharma, Dinesh Karthik, Praveen Kumar, Amit Mishra, Abhishek Nayar.
Pakistan: Younus Khan (capt), Imran Nazir, Misbah-ul-Haq, Umar Akmal, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Fawad Alam, Mohammad Yousuf, Kamran Akmal (wk), Umar Gul, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Asif, Rao Iftikhar, Saeed Ajmal.
West Indies: Floyd Reifer (capt), David Bernard, Tino Best, Royston Crandon, Travis Dowlin, Andre Fletcher, Nikita Miller, Daren Powell, Kieran Powell, Dale Richards, Kemar Roach, Darren Sammy, Devon Smith, Gavin Tonge, Chadwick Walton (wk).
The ICC Champions Trophy finally gets underway in South Africa on September 22, having been postponed due to terrorism fears when it was originally scheduled in Pakistan 12 months ago.
PAKISTAN, despite being winners of the ICC World Twenty20 in June, are, oddly, just fifth favourites with the bookies for this, the next world tournament. They leave out Abdul Razzaq, with Yorkshire’s Naved-ul Hasan getting the nod for the all-rounders berth instead. Disgraced fast bowler Mohammed Asif returns to the squad, his latest doping ban coming to an end the exact day the tournament starts. Handy.
To prove his fitness Asif has been training with the Pakistan under-23s and the whole Pakistan team will again visit sports psychologist Maqbool Bari as they did before their triumphant World Twenty20 campaign. Umar Gul’s 13 wickets at 12.15 from that tournament would come in pretty handy too. They start against West Indies at Jo’burg on September 23, with the big match with India at Centurion on the 26th.
Sachin Tendulkar will join The Wall Rahul Dravid for INDIA in a creakingly old looking middle order, having been recalled after opting out of the Indian’s last one-day series against the West Indies. Dravid, 36, has not played an ODI for nearly two years.
Despite their blistering wins over England and New Zealand in the last 12 months and the perception – voiced by Kevin Pietersen, among many others – that their brutal batting have taken the 50-over game to a new level, India – who are second favourites with the bookies behind the hosts South Africa – have something to prove here. They flopped defending their World T20 title in June and the absence of both Zaheer Khan and Virender Sehwag – still out with a shoulder injury – is a blow. India will stick with Dinesh Karthik at the top of the order after the sometime wicket keeper averaged nearly 40 in the recent Windies one-day series.
Even the players’ mothers would be hard pressed to recognise some of the WEST INDIES squad, as the selectors stick with the same depleted squad from their recent Test and ODI humblings at the hands of Bangladesh. Chris Gayle, Shiv Chanderpaul and Ronnie Sarwan have made themselves available for selection following their strike – but the stand-off continues. One player who reportedly refused to play in the Banglas series but will be here is paceman Daren Powell. Nonetheless, captain Floyd Reifer will lead a seriously weakened side against Pakistan in their opening fixture.
Brad Haddin is a major doubt for AUSTRALIA having had to fly back home for surgery on his fractured finger and, at the time of SPIN going to press, no replacement has yet been named. Tim Paine, Graham Manou and Chris Hartley are all names in the frame. Marcus North has been dropped from the Australian squad, his middle order place instead falling to Western Australia’s Adam Voges, who played his only ODI for Australia more than two years ago. The names on the sheet still give no clear idea as to who will be opening the Australian batting order, the Aussies having tried various permutations of Michael Clarke, Haddin, Shane Watson, Shaun Marsh and David Warner in recent games.
Group B
South Africa: Graeme Smith (capt), Johan Botha, Hashim Amla, Mark Boucher (wk), AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Herschelle Gibbs, Jacques Kallis, Albie Morkel, Makhaya Ntini, Wayne Parnell, Robin Peterson, Dale Steyn, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Roelof van der Merwe.
New Zealand: Daniel Vettori (capt), Shane Bond, Neil Broom, Ian Butler, Brendon Diamanti, Grant Elliott, Martin Guptill, Gareth Hopkins (wk), Brendon McCullum (wk), Kyle Mills, Jacob Oram, Jeetan Patel, Jesse Ryder, Ross Taylor, Daryl Tuffey.
Sri Lanka: Kumar Sangakkara (capt), Muttiah Muralitharan, Sanath Jayasuriya, Mahela Jayawardene, Upul Tharanga, Thilan Samaraweera, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Angelo Mathews, Chamara Kapugedera, Thilina Kandamby, Ajantha Mendis, Thilan Thushara, Nuwan Kulasekara, Dammika Prasad, Lasith Malinga
England: Andrew Strauss (capt), James Anderson, Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Paul Collingwood, Joe Denly, Eoin Morgan, Matt Prior (wk), Adil Rashid, Owais Shah, Ryan Sidebottom, Graeme Swann, Jonathan Trott, Luke Wright
ENGLAND go into the tournament hoping to do better than last time round, in 2006, when they were thumped by India (who bowled them out for 125) and Australia (who beat them with 13 overs to spare) and didn’t make it out of the group stages. This time they’ll be looking to Jimmy Anderson and the returning Ryan Sidebottom – who hadn’t played an ODI since June 2008 when the squad was selected – to lead the bowling.
Kevin Pietersen, whose Achilles rules him out, will obviously be a big miss but his replacement Jonathan Trott is likely to be a capable replacement: he has been averaging over 40 in the domestic one-day game this year and, as we noted last month, has hit more Twenty20 runs than any English-qualified player in the history of the game.
England will face SRI LANKA in Jo’burg on September 25 in their opening match. The Sirils have again opted to leave out experienced seamers Chaminda Vaas and Dilhara Fernando. Instead they keep faith Dammika Prasad who was carted for more than six an over in his last two one-day games in the recent 3-2 win over Pakistan. Sri Lanka will expect big things from seamer Nuwan Kulasekara, statistically the world’s leading ODI bowler having taken 36 wickets over the last 12 months.
SOUTH AFRICA go into the tournament as firm favourites with home advantage, ever-present strong batting line up and, possibly surprisingly, three spinners (with the recalled Robin Peterson, alongside Johan Botha and Roelof van der Merwe, who both flourished at the World T20). There’s no place for Morne Morkel, however, after a poor year that has yielded just seven wickets in five ODIs.
Instead, the Saffers bring in bring medium pacer Lonwabo Tsotsobe, who bagged four wickets in his debut one-dayer against the Australians in January, but has been sidelined since with knee problems. The Saffers kick off the tournament against Sri Lanka on September 22 at Centurion.
NEW ZEALAND, whose Champs Trophy win in 2000 is their only major tournament success to date (they have reached six semi-finals) have left out Nathan McCullum, despite his being the second most economical bowler at the ICC World Twenty20. The big news, though, is the belated return of ICL outcasts Daryl Tuffey and, in particular, Shane Bond.
Now 34, it’s two-and-a-half years since Bond played his last ODI. In the history of cricket, Bond’s ODI strike rate of 27.5 has only been bettered by Ajantha Mendis. Bond hasn’t played a game in anger since February, but his presence alongside Vettori and Brendon McCullum suggests that, at 13-1 seventh favourites (England are sixth), the Black Caps might be a good outside bet.
