Champions Trophy in SouthAfrica

The Champions Trophy scheduled to start Sep-11th in Pakistan is most likely to be changed to SouthAfrica due to security problems. Australia,England and NewZeland have already expressed their concern and few Aussies have confirmed that they will pull out of the tournament if held in Pakistan. Its pretty fair on the players to feel concerned about security when bomb blasts happen in the city where you stay in. The recent bomb blasts in Karachi just a day after the AsiaCup finals has not helped PCB in claiming security cover for players and want to stage the tournament in Pakistan.

In all likelihood, ICC will request SA to conduct the tournament and SA has already started work in anticipation will accept to host the tournament. India has had good times in South Africa in the ODI, reaching WorldCup finals and not to mention the T20 WorldCup finals Victory. The team must be more confident and finally the fast bowlers can heave a sigh of relief to get to bowl in true wickets.

The Selectors have picked the 30 probables in the expected lines giving emphases for the youngsters over the veterans in Rahul and Gangully. With couple of match winning performance in the CB series, Sachin is favored and his mere presence in the dressing room should do a world of good to the youngsters, only worry is that he should be fit after the demanding Test series against the SriLankans. I would not mind if he misses the Champions Trophy to prolong his Test Carrier by another 3 or 4 years.

On the Youngsters in the probables, its nice to see VirathKoli and Jadeja but its very unfortunate that the Under-19 player of IPL Goswami does not find a place and its also understandable that we already have 3 good keepers (Dhoni,Karthik and Parthiv) in the probables. Asnodkar, VenugopalRao, ShikarDawan are the few youngsters names come to my mind who i feel missed to make it to the 30 even after some important performances in the IPL, having said that ODI's are a different ball game from the T20 so i would not be too worried. I would think ShikarDawan should have made it to the 30, he has been very consistent in the domestic tournaments and showed good technique and promise in the IPL. Getting into the 30 itself will give these youngsters confidence a lot of good and work harder to get to the squad as they know that they are just one step away from the Indian Cap.