Sri Lankan Team for T20 World Cup 2009

Sri Lanka named uncapped all-rounder Isuru Udana in a 15-man squad for next month’s Twenty20 World Cup in England.

The competition will be the first tour since the team came under a terrorist attack in Pakistan while playing in a test series in March.

Seven cricketers and one coach were injured when their bus was ambushed by gunmen as the team traveled to a match against Pakistan at Lahore. Six police officers and the driver of a van taking match officials were killed in the attack.

Kumar Sangakkara will go in front the Sri Lanka team for the first time as captain in England, which is hosting the Twenty20 World Cup from June 5 2009 to June 21 2009.

Sri Lanka team: Kumar Sangakkara (Captain ), 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.

Spinner's Role In T20 World Cup 2009 England

Spinners will play a vital role in the forthcoming World T20 in England as they did in the Indian Premier League (IPL) where they were inventive and did not allow freebies to batsmen, feels former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram, He said Twenty20 requires a different set of skills and is a big test of a cricketer’s capability.

“In a short span of time, T20 cricket has become a different ball game. Now batsmen have realized that they cannot play big shots right through the innings. They have to plan their innings. They need to have different skills to make it in T20. Both the batsmen and the bowlers have to be inventive,” Akram said on the sidelines of an ESPN Sports event related to the T20 World Cup starting June 5.

“Spinners are going to play an important role as we saw in IPL, where they have been successful. Batsmen will find them difficult to handle,” said the former Pakistan captain.

Sanjay Manjerekar, who was also present on the occasion, seconded Akram’s view.

The former India player said that the skills required in Twenty20 format were closer to Test cricket.

“IPL in South Africa has tested the skills of a player like Test cricket. The opening edition was played in India where the pitches change only after 50 overs, so it made little difference. In South Africa it was different. With little bit of help from the surface, the spinners were unbeaten. Also you need certain amount of skills to slog a spinner. Good footwork and perception is necessary to attack spinners,” he said.

“When the Twenty20 World Cup was held last time, it was not as big as the 50 over World Cup. India were a hesitant participant. But two years later it has completely changed. Suddenly the importance of T20 has leapfrogged. It is the pinnacle of the game now.

“The unpredictability of T20 makes it exciting. Captains are still learning how to play. They are still working out their strategies,” said Manjerekar.

Manjerekar also said that the tournament will be more aggressive than IPL.

“There will be 11 international players and nation challenging against nation.”

Twenty-20 World Cup 2009 groups and its teams

There are Four Groups in the T20 World Cup 2009 England .Each group contains three teams. The teams shown below:

Group A	Group B	Group C	Group D
India	Pakistan	Australia	New Zealand
Bangladesh	England	Sri Lanka	South Africa
Ireland	Netherlands	West Indies	Scotland

The second level groups are Group E and Group F these groups contains the teama which clears the first level of league matches played with in their groupmets.The qulification for this second level is that a team should be in 1st or 2nd position in their group points tabel.

Group E	Group F
A1	B1
B2	A2
C1	C2
D2	D1

ICC T20 World Cup 2009 Schedule

The first level of league matches's Date and Time details:

Date	Lord's	Trent Bridge	The Oval
Fri, 5 June	Opening ceremony England v Netherlands 22:00 IST
Sat, 6 June		India v Bangladesh 22:00 IST	New Zealand v Scotland 14:30 IST Australia v West Indies 18:00 IST
Sun, 7 June			South Africa v Scotland 18:00 IST England v Pakistan 22:00 IST
Mon, 8 June		Ireland v Bangladesh 18:00 IST Australia v Sri Lanka 22:00 IST
Tues, 9 June	Pakistan v Netherlands 18:00 IST New Zealand v South Africa 22:00 IST
Wed, 10 June		Sri Lanka v West Indies 18:00 IST India v Ireland 22:00 IST

The Date and Time details of the Super 8 matches:

Date	Lord's	Trent Bridge	The Oval
Thu, 11 June		D1 v A2 (18:00 IST) B2 v D2 (22:00 IST)
Fri, 12 June	B1 v C2 (18:00 IST) A1 v C1 (22:00 IST)
Sat, 13 June			C1 v D2 (18:00 IST) D1 v B1 (22:00 IST)
Sun, 14 June	A2 v C2 (18:00 IST) A1 v B2 (22:00 IST)
Mon, 15 June			B1 v A2 (18:00 IST) B2 v C1 (22:00 IST)
Tues, 16 June		D1 v C2 (18:00 IST) D2 v A1 (22:00 IST)

The Date and Time details of Semi-Final and Final matches:

Date	Lord's	Trent Bridge	The Oval
Thu, 18 June		Semi-final 1 E1 v F2 (22:00 IST)
Fri, 19 June			Semi-final 2 F1 v E2 (22:00 IST)
Sun, 21 June	Final Match 19:30 IST Closing ceremony

Indian Cricket Squade for Twenty-20 World cup 2009

Batsmen in Indian T20 World Cup squad:

• MS Dhoni (Captain)


• Virender Sehwag (Vice Captain)


• Gautam Gambhir


• Suresh Raina


• Yuvraj Singh


• Yusuf Pathan


• Rohit Sharma


• Ravindra Jadeja

Bowlers in Indian T20 World Cup squad:

• Harbhajan Singh


• Zaheer Khan


• Ishant Sharma


• Praveen Kumar


• Rudhara Pradap Singh


• Pragyan Ojha


• Irfan Pathan