Dravid, Tendulkar in CT probables list

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Bangalore: Batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar and former India captain Rahul Dravid are among the 30 probables' list released by the Indian selectors for the ICC Champions Trophy to be held in South Africa in September.

The All-India Senior Selection Committee met at M A Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Monday to select the following thirty players as probables for the mega event, a Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) release said here.

Also back in contention are swashbuckling opener Virender Sehwag, who missed the World Twenty20 due to shoulder injury, and Suresh Raina, who missed the just concluded short tour to the West Indies, due to injury.

The biggest surprise sprung by the selectors, headed by Krishnamachari Srikkanth, was the inclusion of Rahul Dravid, who was considered not good enough for shorter versions of the game by the previous committee, headed by Dilip Vengsarkar and company while Tendulkar is expected to recover completely from the injury he sustained during the Indian Premier League (IPL).

The Karnataka star played his last ODI back in October 2007 against Australia in Nagpur scoring just seven runs though he averages a healthy 39.49 from 333 games with over 10,000 ODI runs under his belt.

Probably the recent performances of India's younger brigade, who were totally exposed to short pitched deliveries both in the World Twenty20 and the just concluded ODI series in the West Indies must have prompted the selectors to go in for a much experienced Dravid.

The list: M S Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Abhishek Nayar, Ishant Sharma, Zaheer Khan, Rudra Pratap Singh, Praveen Kumar, Harbhajan Singh, Pragyan Ojha, Ravindra Jadeja, Dinesh Karthik, Munaf Patel, R Ashwin, M Vijay, Amit Mishra, Ajinkya Rahane, Dhawal Kulkarni, S Badrinath, Ashish Nehra, Virat Kohli, Bhuvneshwar Kumar Singh, Wridhiman Saha and Pankaj Singh.