Mumbai: Veteran spinner Harbhajan Singh has been left out from the list of probable players for the ICC Champions Trophy to be played in England in June.Virender ,Yuvraj Sehwag and fast bowler Zaheer Khan were also omitted from the 30-member probables list for the ICC Champions Trophy.
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.
Probables List: Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Gautam Gambhir, Unmukt Chand, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Manoj Tiwary, Ajinkya Rahane, Ambati Rayudu, Kedar Jadhav, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Wriddhiman Saha, Dinesh Karthik, Ravichandran Ashwin, Amit Mishra, Ravindra Jadeja, Jalaj Saxena, Parveez Rasool, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ashok, Dinda, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Irfan Pathan, R Vinay Kumar, Preveen Kumar, Ishwar Pandey, Sidharth Kaul.