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Which 15 for the World Cup?

The next few days will be interesting as most of the major nations announce their final World Cup 15 (except Sri Lanka who've done so already). So time for some "crystal-balling" primarily from a patriotic perspective. My first XI to battle for the trophy is pretty straight forward (in batting order) - Tendulkar, Sehwag, Gambhir, Yuvraj, Dhoni, Raina, Pathan (Y), Harbhajan, Praveen, Zaheer, Munaf. Three of the four back-up players are also straightforward with Virat Kohli the best spare batsman, Nehra the spare quick and Ashwin the spare spinner. So the main discussion will presumably revolve around the 15th player and its a toughie. At the moment it would seem that Parthiv Patel would get the nod ahead of others simply as cover for both Dhoni and the batting which is what India will rely on in their victory attempts. So that would be my XV. Just for a lark, I've also put in my guesses for the rest of the squads that are yet to be announced. Lets see how close I get :-) I'm cheating just a tiny bit by hedging bets for the last player in each squad (so I've actually guessed 16 instead of 15).

My picks for the last four - South Africa, India, England, and Australia with New Zealand as the dark horse. Yuvraj Singh and Shane Watson to be the men of the tournament. So there, I've laid my initial bets out!

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