Sachin Tendulkar has said he is confident about India defending its World Twenty20 title and expects the pace attack to come good in English conditions. "It is on par with the best," he told Daily News and Analysis. "Zaheer [Khan], Ishant [Sharma] and RP Singh form a lethal combination, particularly in English conditions. Our seam attack has a lot of variety and would come handy in such conditions. On our day, we can demolish any batting side."
Tendulkar, who will not take part in the World Twenty20, had stressed the need for the Indian players to get adequate rest ahead of the competition after an intense IPL. He had singled out India's opening combination, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, which had struggled in the IPL, to fight fatigue in the lead-up to the tournament in England.
When asked about Sehwag's poor run, Tendulkar said: "Every player has ups and downs in his career and Viru [Sehwag] is no exception. But an on-song Viru is a delight to watch. If he gets one cover drive right, he'll mesmerise everybody and will again be back to his best. The bowlers will be at his mercy then. He is a superb striker of the ball ... on his day, he can do anything."
Tendulkar tipped India as the favourites for competition, for he felt that rather than just some individuals making the difference, the team is the best balanced outfit around. "We come as a package," he said. "I am certain this package is the best in business at the moment. This package has everything which is necessary to make us world champions once again.
"India is the most balanced side in the world and there is no doubt we can defend the title. We have very good cricketers in our side and we have proved that this combination is the deadliest."
Vs
Group B: England v Netherlands
Venue: Lord's
Date: Jun 5, 2009
Match scheduled to begin at 17:30 local time (16:30 GMT)
England could be forced to go into next month's ICC World Twenty20 without the services of their premier allrounder, Andrew Flintoff, after he revealed that he has yet to start running after undergoing surgery on a knee injury sustained during his brief stint at the IPL in April.
Flintoff was one of 15 players named in England's squad for the tournament, which starts at Lord's on June 5. But England could have to name a replacement if he cannot prove his fitness in the next three weeks. "I'd love to play in the Twenty20," he told Sky Sports, "but that might be too tight."
With the Ashes fast approaching in July, England desperately need Flintoff, 31, to be fully fit and firing before the arrival of the Australians. But despite his history of injury problems, which include a hip complaint that caused him to fly home midway through the tour of the Caribbean in March, he remains confident about recovering in time.
"I had an operation two weeks ago and I'm already off my crutches," he said. "The Ashes are a long way off - and I'll be fine for them."
England's Twenty20 captain, Paul Collingwood, conceded that the loss of Flintoff for the tournament would be a "huge blow", but felt sure that they would be able to make do without him.
"He's very much two players in one - as I've always said," said Collingwood. "But I think we've got quite a versatile squad with the players we've got in there. It would be a huge blow if he wasn't going to be fit, but we certainly have the players in the squad to overcome that in many ways."
Collingwood even raised the prospect of leaving Flintoff's place in the squad open for a late return, if he was able to recover in time. "Without Fred, it makes it very difficult to get the right balance between batters and bowlers in the final 11," he said Collingwood. "It's something we're going to have to gauge."
Sachin Tendulkar has stressed the need for adequate rest for Indian players ahead of the World Twenty20 in June, particularly so for the openers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, who failed to fire in the IPL. Tendulkar was by and large satisfied with the way Indian players performed in the IPL but pointed out that Sehwag and Gambhir had not been consistent. The pair only managed two half-century partnerships in nine innings together, and struggled with their form. Both batsmen were among the top ten run-getters last season, but Gambhir finished with a disappointing average of 22 from 15 games this year, and Sehwag with 19.38 from 11.
"I think individually the boys are doing well," Tendulkar said upon arrival in India. "Look at Rohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, MS [Dhoni] ... In the bowling department, Zaheer was doing well before he got injured and RP Singh has come up in leaps and bounds.
"Only our opening combination of Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag hasn't fired," Tendulkar said. "I think the key would be how soon they can shed the fatigue factor. They have been playing back to back for a long time now and it would be difficult to keep up the tempo."
The World Twenty20 is scheduled to begin on June 5 and India face Bangladesh in their first league game the next day. Asked if the IPL served as an ideal preparation for the tournament, Tendulkar said: "… It is. You are playing the same format and you are playing against the best bowlers and also not in home conditions. So, I think this is a good preparation except that the players should take adequate rest between the IPL and the ICC World Twenty20."
Tendulkar was also sure he didn't intend to represent India in the Twenty20 format. "I never thought that I would play the ICC World Twenty20. MS Dhoni and his Twenty20 team have done wonderfully well and I just hope they continue to do so. I have no plans to play Twenty20 for India," he said.
Tendulkar led an unsuccessful campaign as captain of Mumbai Indians, losing eight out of 14 games, and failing to make it to the semi-finals. "We blew hot and cold," he said about his team's performance. "There were times when we could have done better than we did. I think it is a batsman's format and in our case it was the batsmen who let us down."
The ICC, ECB and MCC have agreed that all ticket holders for Saturday of the first Test match at Lord’s will not only receive a full refund but also the opportunity to get a 50 per cent discount for one of the two Lord’s warm-up days for the ICC World Twenty20 event in June.
After discussions, following England’s victory against the West Indies, it was agreed that the spectators who were scheduled to come to Lord’s for the fourth day of the Test match should receive a chance to be part of the ICC World Twenty20.
There will be a 50 per cent discount for one of the warm-up days - either June 1 or June 3 - when you present a valid ticket for the Saturday of the first Test match at the North Gate ticket office on the day of the game. The Lord's tournament ticket office opens on June 1, 2009.
The warm-up matches are Ireland v Netherlands and New Zealand v India on June 1 or Sri Lanka v South Africa and England v West Indies on June 3.
The ECB have also agreed to extend the refund period for Saturday’s tickets from the normal 28 days to 56 days to allow spectators the chance not only to gain their 50 per cent discount on the ICC World Twenty20 matches but also their full refund for the npower Test match ticket.
Netherlands squad for ICC World Twenty20
Jeroen Smits (C & WK)
Peter Borren
Ryan ten Doeschate
Tom De Grooth
Maurits Jonkman
Alexei Kervezee
Dirk Nannes
Ruud Nijman
darren Reekers
Edgar Schiferli
Pieter Seelaar
Mudassar Buhkari
Eric Szwarczynski
Dan van Bunge
Bas Zuiderent
West Indies squad for ICC World Twenty20
Chris Gayle (capt)
Denesh Ramdin (wk)
Lionel Baker
Sulieman Benn
David Bernard jnr.
Dwayne Bravo
Shivnarine Chanderpaul
Fidel Edwards
Andre Fletcher
Xavier Marshall
Kieron Pollard
Darren Sammy
Ramnaresh Sarwan
Lendl Simmons
Jerome Taylor
Ireland squad for ICC World Twenty20
William Porterfield (c)
Andre Botha
Jeremy Bray
Peter Connell
Alex Cusack
Trent Johnston
Kyle McCallan
John Mooney
Kevin O’Brien
Niall O’Brien
Boyd Rankin
Paul Stirling
Regan West
Andrew White
Gary Wilson
Scotland squad for ICC World Twenty20
Gavin Hamilton (capt)
Richie Berrington
John Blain
Kyle Coetzer
Gordon Drummond
Majid Haq
Neil McCallum
Navdeep Poonia
Dewald Nel
Glenn Rogers
Colin Smith
Jan Stander
Fraser Watts
Ryan Watson
Craig Wright
Bangladesh squad for ICC World Twenty20
Mohammad Ashraful (c)
Abdur Razzak
Junaid Siddique
Mahmudullah
Mashrafe Mortaza
Mushfiqur Rahim (wk)
Mithun Ali
Naeem Islam
Rubel Hossain
Raqibul Hasan
Shakib Al Hasan
Tamim Iqbal
Shahadat Hossain
Syed Rasel
Shamsur Rahman
South African squad for ICC World Twenty20
Graeme Smith (c)
Johan Botha
Yusuf Abdulla
Mark Boucher
AB de Villiers
JP Duminy
Herschelle Gibbs
Jacques Kallis
Albie Morkel
Morne Morkel
Justin Ontong
Wayne Parnell
Robin Peterson
Dale Steyn
Roelof van der Merwe.
Sri Lankan squad for ICC World Twenty20
Kumar Sangakkara (c)
Muttiah Muralitharan
Sanath Jayasuriya
Tillakaratne Dilshan
Mahela Jayawardene
Chamara Silva
Angelo Mathews
Ajantha Mendis
Nuwan Kulasekara
Thilan Thushara
Lasith Malinga
Isuru Udana
Farveez Maharoof
Jehan Mubarak
Indika de Seram.
Pakistan squad for ICC World Twenty20
Younis Khan (c)
Misbahul Haq (vc)
Salman Butt
Ahmed Shahzad
Shoaib Malik
Shahid Afridi
Karman Akmal
Shoaib Akhtar
Umar Gull
Fawad Alam
Suhail Tanvir
Yasir Arafat
Shahzaib Hassan
Muhammad Amir.
Australian squad for ICC World Twenty20
Ricky Ponting (c)
Michael Clarke (vc)
Nathan Bracken
Brad Haddin NSW
Nathan Hauritz
Ben Hilfenhaus
James Hopes
David Hussey
Mike Hussey
Mitchell Johnson
Brett Lee
Peter Siddle
Andrew Symonds
David Warner
Shane Watson.
New Zealand squad for ICC World Twenty20
Daniel Vettori (captain)
Neil Broom
Ian Butler
Brendon Diamanti
James Franklin
Martin Guptill
Brendon McCullum
Nathan McCullum
Peter McGlashan
Kyle Mills
Iain O’Brien
Jacob Oram
Jesse Ryder
Scott Styris
Ross Taylor
England squad for ICC World Twenty20
Paul Collingwood (capt)
James Anderson
Ravi Bopara
Stuart Broad
Andrew Flintoff
James Foster
Robert Key
Dimitri Mascarenhas
Eoin Morgan
Graham Napier
Kevin Pietersen
Owais Shah
Ryan Sidebottom
Graeme Swann
Luke Wright.
Indian squad for ICC World Twenty20
MS Dhoni (Captain and Wicket Keeper)
Virender Sehwag
Gautam Gambhir
Suresh Raina
Yuvraj Singh
Yusuf Pathan
Rohit Sharma
Harbhajan Singh
Zaheer Khan
Ishant Sharma
Praveen Kumar
RP Singh
Ravindra Jadeja
Pragyan Ojha
Irfan Pathan
The ICC World Twenty20 2009 will be the second time a world event for Twenty20 cricket has been held.
The event, which feature 12 teams in the men's tournament and eight teams in the women's competition, will be staged in June 2009 at Lord's, The Oval, Trent Bridge and Taunton.
The inaugural ICC World Twenty20 competition took place in South Africa in September 2007.
The competition, which lasted for just two weeks, was a thrilling event which culminated in India's dramatic five run defeat of Pakistan at Johannesburg.
The 2009 event sees both the men’s and women’s tournament integrated for the first time. The men’s tournament format consists of 12 teams, played across three venues – Lord’s, Trent Bridge and The Oval.
The women’s tournament consists of eight teams with the group stage games hosted at Taunton. The semi-final days hosted at Trent Bridge and The Oval and the finals day hosted at Lord’s will bring the two tournaments together with the men’s matches following the women’s match on each match-day.
A key feature of the 2009 event is that the majority of match-days will include two games showcasing four different teams.
This double-header format allows spectators to view two games for the price of one match-day ticket.
Keep up to date with all the news ahead of the competition here.