Dravid, Sachin, Sourav opt out of Twenty20 World Cup

Senior trio opts out, says selection chief Vengsarkar.

Indian Skipper Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly have opted out of the first Twenty20 World Cup, to be held in South Africa in September 2007.

The national selection committee announced on Saturday a list of 30 probables. Panel chairman Dilip Vengsarkar said Dravid informed him about the decision of the three senior players. Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh and Irfan Pathan has found a place in the list. Mohammad Kaif and Suresh Raina are the others making a come back.

As expected a number of young players figure in the list.

Neeraj Patel (Gujarat), Karan Goel (Punjab), Abhishek Jhunjhunwala (Bengal), Cheteshwar Pujara (Saurashtra), Niranjan Behera (Orissa), Anirudha Srikkanth (Tamil Nadu) and Praveen Kumar (Uttar Pradesh), who have consistently fared well in the domestic circuit, have been given a chance.

The final team will be selected on Aug 6 or 7. The tournament begins from September 11 and the final is on September 24.

Dilip Vengsarkar said the senior Indian trio wanted to give youngsters a chance and hence opted out.

The national selectors also picked the India A squad for the Zimbabwe and Kenya tours, starting later this month. Mohammad Kaif is the captain and Parthiv Patel will be his deputy.

Suresh Raina and Munaf Patel were not included in the India A squad due to fitness concerns.

The probables

Robin Uthappa, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Mohammad Kaif, Dinesh Karthik, Rohit Sharma, Gautam Gambhir, Yousuf Pathan, Suresh Raina, Manoj Tiwary, Neeraj Patel, Karan Goel, Cheteshwar Pujara, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Rudra Pratap Singh, Ishant Sharma, Zaheer Khan, Irfan Pathan, Ajit Agarkar, S Sreesanth [Images], Munaf Patel, Joginder Sharma, Piyush Chawla, Harbhajan Singh, Ramesh Powar, Rajesh Pawar, Niranjan Behera, Anirudha Srikkanth, Praveen Kumar.

India A:

Mohammad Kaif (C), Parthiv Patel (vice-captain), Robin Uthappa, Cheteshwar Pujara, S Badrinath, Rohit Sharma, Rajesh Pawar, Mahesh Rawat (WK, Piyush Chawla, Arjun Yadav, Pragyan Ojha, Irfan Pathan, V R V Singh, V Yo Mahesh, Pankaj Singh and Neeraj Patel.