Lee’s World Cup In Doubt
Brett Lee is a doubtful for the ICC World Twenty20.
Injuries woes have followed Lee around like a rash. The latest problem resulted from a broken thumb picked up during the King’s XI Punjab’s victory over the Mumbai Indians in IPL 3.
“It is unfortunate that Brett Lee has to leave the tournament due to a fractured thumb,” said Kumar Sangakkara, the captain of Punjab, who said he hoped Lee would not miss the World Twenty20. “I hope not as we know he is a world-class performer and we would like him to be back fit soon.”
Lee struggled in the opening matches of the IPL, and found it difficult to find his form after an elbow injury kept him out of action for most of the summer. Nevertheless Aussie coach Tim Nielsen would still like to have the speedy Lee in the squad for the Caribbean event.
”All we can do is wait and see how it reacts over the next four or five days before we have our camp and head off to the West Indies,” Nielsen told the Age on Wednesday. “Hopefully it will heal, and the scans and things he’s having at the moment will show exactly the nature of the damage and what the likelihood of him playing is.”
The ICC World Twenty20 kicks off on the 30 April.
Courtesy www.cricinfo.com
IPL Stars To Miss World Cup
Irfan Pathan celebrates another wicket for the King's XI Punjab.
Last year, India headed into the ICC World Twenty20 in England as hot favourites. While other countries benefitted from their players’ participation in the IPL, India had surely gained the most advantage from the T20 jamboree. With each IPL side fielding seven local players per match as part of the tournament’s rules, India’s young and upcoming cricketers had earned the ideal opportunity to test their skills against the world’s best.
Sadly for Indian cricket fans, the experience gained from the IPL didn’t translate into tournament success as they failed to make it to the semifinal stage last year.
Again this year the Indian selectors were spoilt for choice when it came to determining the squad for the Caribbean. But have they made the correct decisions?
Here are five on-form IPL cricketers who will be missing out on the ICC World Twenty20 at the end of the month…
Robin Uthappa
Can you believe the Royal Challengers Bangalore batter is only 24 four years of age? He seems to have been around for a lot longer. With the enthusiasm of youth, he has been RCB’s chief bludgeoner at this year’s IPL. If you’ve seen him hit a six, you’ll know that it stays hit. So far he’s notched up 318 runs at a strike-rate of 178.65 and including 24 ‘DLF Maximums’ (aka sixes) – the tournament record so far. He also keeps wicket – making him an almost obvious choice for the squad. Yes? Sadly the answer is no, as the Indian selectors have gone for the Delhi Daredevils’ Dinesh Karthik as second-choice keeper. Karthik is a solid option – but most fans would have loved to see the clean striking of Uthappa at the World Cup.
Murali Vijay
Murali Vijay’s transformation from steady Test batter to explosive T20 hitter sadly came too late to warrant selection for this year’s ICC World Twenty20. But anybody who witnessed his magnificent 56-ball 127 for the Chennai Super Kings against Rajasthan earlier in this year’s IPL would have felt strongly that Vijay has a special talent. The 26-year-old, who like most Indian batters cites Sachin Tendulkar as his hero, blasted 11 sixes and eight fours that day to help Chennai post the biggest-ever IPL total. His batting exploits so far this season have even put the performances of fellow Chennai opener Matthew Hayden in the shade – a true indicator of his fine form. Oh, and don’t call him Murali – like most southern Indians, he only has one name which is Vijay (Murali is his father’s name).
Pragyan Ohja and Amit Mishra
The two leading wicket-takers in this year’s IPL are both spinners and are both Indian. But neither are India’s first nor second-choice tweakers for this year’s ICC World Twenty20 – those titles belongs to Harbhajan Singh and Piyush Chawla. Instead Pragyan Ohja (with 18 wickets for the Deccan Chargers) and Amit Mishra (with 16 wickets for the Delhi Daredevils) will be sitting at home while the Indian team takes to the field on Caribbean wickets that should be fairly conducive to spin. The 23-year-old Ohja has played four T20Is for India, while Mishra has only achieved highest honours in the Test and ODI arenas. Both can certainly count themselves unlucky to lose out to Chawla, whose form so far for the King’s XI Punjab has been solid as opposed to inspirational.
Irfan Pathan
How do you conceivably travel to the game’s premier T20 tournament without an all-rounder of the class of Irfan Pathan? The Man of the Match in the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 Final, Pathan’s back injury woes earlier this season meant he missed out on selection for the World Cup squad. But the 25-year-old veteran of 107 ODIs for India has clearly been fit enough to put in impressive performances for the King’s XI Punjab this year – he’s taken 14 wickets so far in the competition (the most for his team) and scored 231 runs, just four short of teammate Yuvraj Singh, who is in the World Cup squad. With plenty of batting all-rounders in the Indian team (Rohit Sharma, young Ravindra Jadeja, who missed out on the IPL due to contractual controversy, and Yuvraj Singh) India might be missing a beat to have excluded bowling all-rounder Pathan.
IPL Hots Up
Praveen Kumar celebrates a wicket with his Bangalore Royal Challengers teammates.
Yesterday’s comprehensive hammering of defending IPL champions the Deccan Chargers by the Mumbai Indians clearly signalled that Sachin’s boys are the team to watch this year. With five wins out of six games, the Indians are sitting pretty atop the IPL league, and their 10 points so far almost guarantee them a semifinal spot.
Below them, the Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Rajasthan Royals are tied on eight points, after the Royals posted a solid win over the Chennai Super Kings yesterday.
For teams to feel secure of a semifinal spot, they need to accumulate at least 16 points. Last year, the Deccan Chargers just snuck into the playoffs with 14 points – but only on a better run-rate than the unfortunate King’s XI Punjab who also had 14 points. Back in 2008, 15 points got the Delhi Daredevils in the mix, ahead of the Mumbai Indians on 14.
With two points awarded for a win, the two teams at the bottom of the log are going to find it exceptionally tough going to reach the semis. The King’s XI Punjab, on just two points, would have to win seven out of their last eight games to secure a spot, while the Chennai Super Kings (on four points) would have to try and win six of their last seven – a tough ask indeed.
A number of players are in the running to win the ‘purple cap’ (most wickets) and ‘orange cap’ (most runs) awards. Despite his team’s poor performance so far, Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan has taken 11 wickets for the Super Kings, significantly ahead of Shaun Tait (Rajasthan Royals) on nine, and three players – Chaminda Vaas (Deccan Chargers), Harbhajan Singh (Mumbai Indians) and Vinay Kumar (Royal Challengers Bangalore) – all share third spot with eight wickets apiece.
Heading up the runs stats is Royal Challengers Bangalore’s Jacques Kallis on 310 runs, with the Mumbai Indians Sachin Tendulkar catching up fast on 303 runs. The Rajasthan Royals Yusuf Pathan is in a distant third on 250 runs.
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