India Name Rahane, Pujara In World Cup Squad

India Name Rahane, Pujara In World Cup Squad

Cheteshwar Pujara, who made an impressive Test debut against Australia earlier this year, is named in India's list of 30 probables for the 2011 World Cup

©REUTERS/Andrew Caballero-Reynolds (INDIA - Tags: SPORT CRICKET) Picture Supplied by Action Images

India have named their 30-man provisional squad for the 2011 World Cup, with prolific batsman Ajinkya Rahane the only player in the list of probables not yet capped in any form of international cricket.

The squad will be trimmed to 15 players by 19th January and the tournament gets underway when co-hosts India take on Bangladesh in Dhaka.

Sri Lanka are the other co-hosts and India are likely to go into the tournament as favourites following strong performances across the board in the last 18 months.

Rahane has an impressive record at domestic level, scoring three centuries in one-day cricket, averaging over 40 in 42 matches.

The only other player in the squad who has yet to earn an ODI call-up is Cheteshwar Pujara, who has played 44 one-day matches and averages 57.08 having scored six centuries.

There are also call-ups for leg-spinners Piyush Chawla and Amit Mishra who haven't played ODI cricket since 2008 and June 2010.

India preliminary World Cup squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, Munaf Patel, Ishant Sharma, Ranganath Vinay Kumar, Murali Vijay, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Ajinkya Rahane, Sourabh Tiwary, Yusuf Pathan, Parthiv Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Wriddhiman Saha, Dinesh Karthik, Shikhar Dhawan, Amit Mishra, Piyush Chawla, Cheteshwar Pujara, Pragyan Ojha, Praveen Kumar

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