2011 heroes sidelined

Mumbai: In a clear sign of looking ahead and showing no interest in putting the clock back, the national selection panel led by Sandeep Patil today dashed the frail comeback hopes of ‘Player of 2011 World Cup, Yuvraj Singh, by ignoring him for the elite award. Yuvraj had played a stellar role in India winning cricket’s showpiece title after 28 years ago in April, 2011, but has gone off the boil in ODIs since then.
While dashing the hopes of 33-year-old Yuvraj the selectors also nipped the slender aspirations of his 2011 teammates like Harbhajan Singh, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir by ignoring them.
The selectors kept faith in the platers from the preliminary list of 30 probables, shortlisted on December 4.
That they had a conference call with victorious 2011 captain M S Dhoni as well as chief coach Duncan Fletcher before finalising the Cup squad is a pretty significant pointer that the Indian team has moved ahead and there are no place for sentiments. Only four members of the 2011 squad – captain Dhoni, new Test captain Virat Kohli, left handed batsman Suresh Raina and off spinner Ravichandran Ashwin – will now have a chance to make it a World Cup double. (PTI)