Indian cricket selectors chose youth over experience while picking its 15-member squad for the upcoming World Cup 2015 in Australia and New Zealand. There were no major surprises as the Board of Control for Cricket in India settled on a squad with two wicketkeeper-batsmen, five batsmen, three allrounders, four seamers, two left-arm spinners, one medium-pacer and one specialist spinner. Their average age: 27.

Of those chosen, only M S Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and Ravichandran Ashwin have played in an earlier edition of the World Cup. The rest have not. The squad, all combined, has played 1,242 matches, which comes to a healthy average of 83 matches per player. Eight players have played less than 50 international one-day international matches.




Here are the 15 players who, come February, will board the plane to Australia and New Zealand to defend India’s title as World Cup champions:

1. Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain and wicketkeeper/right-hand bat)


(Wikimedia Commons)

Age: 33
Matches: 250
Runs: 8,192
Wickets: 1

Born in Ranchi, Dhoni has become one of the most recognisable names in Indian cricket, captaining ODI, Test and T20 sides. Under his captaincy, India held the top Test rank for 18 months from December 2009. Under his stewardship, they won the World Twenty20 Cup in 2007 and the 50-over World Cup in 2011. He recently retired from Test cricket, but will lead India’s charge to retain the World Cup.

2. Shikhar Dhawan (Right-hand bat)


(Wikimedia Commons)

Age: 29
Matches: 49
Runs: 2,046
Wickets: 0

Dhawan was written off by nearly everyone. The Delhi resident played first-class cricket for nine years before he got a call to join the Indian Test squad. Starting with style, he hit the fastest Test century by a debutant against Australia at Mohali in March 2013. He is now a solid opening batsman in both Tests and One-Day Internationals. He has even bowled five overs in the 13 Test matches that he has played.

3. Rohit Sharma (Right-hand bat/right-hand offbreak)


(Wikimedia Commons)

Age: 27
Matches: 126
Runs: 3,752
Wickets: 8

Rohit Sharma has oodles of batting talent. In his initial years in international cricket, failures followed his brilliant innings. A welcome change in form came when he was promoted to open the batting in 2013. He then hit form in the Champions Trophy and went on to get a place in the Test squad. He recently hit 264 off 173 balls against Sri Lanka to become the first batsman to hit two ODI double-hundreds.

4. Ajinkya Rahane (Right-hand bat)


(http://www.rajasthanroyals.com/)

Age: 26
Matches: 42
Runs: 1,230
Wickets: 0

Born in Maharashtra, Rahane represented Mumbai in all age levels. His progression has been natural. At first he was seen as a prospective Mumbai player if not more. Selectors started to write him off as a talent that only made 50s and never 100s. Three years into his ODI career, he has proved that they were well off the mark.

5. Virat Kohli (Right-hand bat/right-hand medium)


(http://www.cricketanalytix.com/)

Age: 26
Matches: 146
Runs: 6,208
Wickets: 4

A middle-order batsman, Kohli has just been handed the Test captaincy during the final Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series. The Delhiite is brash and aggressive. He was once described by Indian legend Anil Kumble as the best under-22 player in international cricket.

6. Suresh Raina (Left-hand bat/right-arm offbreak)


(Wikimedia Commons)

Age: 28
Matches: 203
Runs: 5,051
Wickets: 31

Raina, from Uttar Pradesh, is one of the rare left-handed batsmen and represents a new age Indian cricketer. He is an attacking batsman, unafraid of going for the big shot. Apart from this, he has proven to be an electric fielder and a part-time bowler.

7. Ambati Rayudu (Right-hand bat/right-hand offbreak)


(Wikimedia Commons)

Age: 29
Matches: 24
Runs: 685
Wickets: 2

Rayudu doubles up as a wicketkeeper when needed. A native of Andhra Pradesh, he has taken two wickets in the 16 overs that he has bowled so far. After his first-class debut in 2002, he had to wait 11 years before making his international debut. It was in an ODI series against Zimbabwe and he scored an unbeaten 63 on debut.

8. Ravichandran Ashwin (Right-arm offbreak)


(http://www.t20worldcricket.com/)

Age: 28
Matches: 87
Runs: 609
Wickets: 119

Hailing from the Tamil Nadu, Ashwin is a right-handed off spinner. He has become the quintessential limited-overs spinner. Most of his chances came because of the vacancy left in the spin department by Anil Kumble's retirement and Harbhajan Singh’s waning career. Ashwin shone for his Indian Premier League franchise and was even the Man of the Series in the 2010 Champions League. This performance earned him a call to the ODI side first and eventually the Test squad. He was part of the 2011 World Cup squad but hardly played. Ashwin is also handy with the bat as was evident in his first Test series where he scored a century.

9. Bhuvneshwar Kumar (Right-arm medium)


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Age: 24
Matches: 42
Runs: 156
Wickets: 44

He hails from Meerut, a town known for producing sports goods. Kumar, once given the new SG ball, can make it swing back into the right-hand batsman. At the time of his debut at the age of 22, India were low on bowlers. He is known for taking the wicket of Sachin Tendulkar that became his first duck in Indian domestic cricket.

10. Mohammed Shami (Right-arm fast-medium)


(http://www.icccricketworldcup2015live.com)

Age: 24
Matches: 36
Runs: 73
Wickets: 68

A Bengal lad, Shami gave away only 23 runs in his international ODI debut against Pakistan in 2013. Since then, he has played a handful of Tests. He is a lethal opening bowler and does not contribute much with the bat.

11. Ishant Sharma (Right-arm fast-medium)


(Wikimedia Commons)

Age: 26
Matches: 75
Runs: 72
Wickets: 106

Another Delhi cricketer, Sharma is a fast bowler with a physique reminiscent of Javagal Srinath. He made his Ranji Trophy debut at 18 and in 2007 made both his Test and ODI debut. Steve Waugh called him the “next best thing in Indian cricket”. His delivery once clocked more than 150kmph.

12. Umesh Yadav (Right-arm fast-medium)


(iplt20.com)

Age: 27
Matches: 38
Runs: 44
Wickets: 47

Another Maharashtra lad, Yadav is the son of a coal mine worker and his original aim was to become a policeman. He represented Vidarbha, an underpeforming team in Ranji Trophy. He started considering a career in cricket at 19, an age by which the best young Indian cricketers are in the running for a national cap.

13. Ravindra Jadeja (Left-hand bat/slow left-arm orthodox)


(Wikimedia Commons)

Age: 26
Matches: 109
Runs: 1691
Wickets: 134

Jadeja is from Gujarat. In India’s Test series against Australia, he dismissed Michael Clarke five out of six times. With his batting skills, he makes him the perfect all-rounder in the Indian squad. He was the first Indian since Anil Kumble in 1996 to have topped the International Cricket Council’s ODI rankings. In his first full series, Jadeja took 24 of the Australian wickets.

14. Akshar Patel (Slow left-arm orthodox)


(http://www.ianslive.in/)

Age: 20
Matches: 9
Runs: 40
Wickets: 14

Also from Gujarat, Patel does not have much experience in international ODIs and is by far the youngest member of India's World Cup squad. His ODI debut was against Bangladesh in June 2014. A handy lower-order batsman, he was named the BCCI Under-19 cricketer of the year for the 2012-13 season. He performed admirably for Kings XI Punjab in the 2014 edition of the Indian Premier League.

15. Stuart Binny (Right-arm medium)


(iplt20.com)

Age: 30
Matches: 6
Runs: 40
Wickets: 9

The son of former Indian all-rounder Roger Binny, Stuart Binny made his domestic debut with Karnataka in the 2003-04 season. He has played three Test matches but is considered a limited-overs specialist. He was picked up as a hard hitting all-rounder. He was the surprise inclusion in the Indian Test squad that toured England in 2014.