RP Singh returns, Munaf dropped from T20 World Cup squad

Paceman R P Singh was on Monday rewarded for his consistent performance in the ongoing IPL with a recall while fellow speedster Munaf Patel was dropped from India's 15-member squad for next month's Twenty20 World Cup in England.

Wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik, who figured in India's squad that played the last Twenty20 in New Zealand in February end, has also been dropped from the squad which has no major surprises. Hard-hitting batsman Robin Uthappa was also omitted.

India, who won the inaugural edition of the championship in South Africa in 2007, will be led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni while Virender Sehwag has been named his deputy.

The squad includes five specialist batsmen, five specialist pacers, two spinners, two all-rounders and a wicket-keeper in Dhoni.

The selectors had earlier announced a list of 30 probables for the event, to be held in England from June 5 to 21, and today pruned it to the final 15. All participating teams have to submit the final squad by Tuesday as per the ICC rules.

As expected, there are no major surprises in the squad which was picked up by the selection panel, headed by former India captain Krishnamachari Srikkanth via teleconference.

Among others who could not make it to the final 15 are Tamil Nadu opener M Vijay, Mumbai trio of Ajinkya Rahane, Dhawal Kulkarni and Abhishek Nayar, Tamil Nadu batsman S Badrinath, Delhi batsman Virat Kohli, Bengal duo of Manoj Tiwary and Wriddhiman Saha, Haryana leggie Amit Mishra, Tamil Nadu pacer L Balaji and Madhya Pradesh stumper Naman Ojha.

Tamil Nadu off-spinner R Ashwin, who was named back-up for Harbhajan Singh, also failed to survive the pruning exercise.

Youngsters Abhishek Raut, who plays for Rajasthan Royals, and Bangalore's Shrivats Goswami also could not make the cut despite their decent showing in the Indian Premier League.

Joginder Sharma, who is remembered for his last over in the inaugural edition of the Twenty20 World Cup, could not find a place in the 30-member list of probables, along with Piyush Chawla and S Sreesanth.

Sreesanth is recovering from a back injury and has not played competitive cricket for the last few months.

Sachin Tendulkar had opted out of the Twenty20 World Cup in 2007 and continues to remain away from the shortest format of the game despite his good form in recent time.

Squad: M S Dhoni (c), Virender Sehwag (v-c), Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Rohit Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, RP Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Pragyan Ojha and Irfan Pathan.