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19 March 2024

INDIA

Published
By Agencies

Captain: Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Coach: Duncan Fletcher

Former champions and one-day World Cup-holders India will bank on their depth in batting and cancer survivor Yuvraj Singh's all-round excellence to regain glory in the shortest format of the game.

India won the inaugural World Twenty20 in South Africa in 2007, but couldn't live up to their billing in the next two editions as they failed to qualify for the semi-finals in England and the West Indies.

Batting will be India's main strength as Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj and Dhoni are all capable of dominating any attack with their exciting strokeplay.

Yuvraj impressed with his power-hitting in the inaugural edition, smashing six sixes in an over from England paceman Stuart Broad at Durban in his 16-ball 58 to set up his team's victory. He also played a big role in India's 50-over World Cup triumph at home last year, scoring 362 runs and grabbing 15 wickets in nine matches to be named man of the tournament.

The spotlight will also be on off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, who is making a comeback after being ignored since August last year.

India squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Irfan Pathan, Ravichandran Ashwin, Zaheer Khan, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Ashok Dinda, Rohit Sharma, Piyush Chawla, Harbhajan Singh, Manoj Tiwary.