Here is India's 30-man squad for ICC World Cup 2015

Mumbai, Dec 4: India's preliminary 30-man squad for the ICC World Cup 2015 was today announced by the BCCI selection panel in Mumbai. There was no place for veterans Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh, which almost signals the end of their international careers.

The selection committee headed by Sandeep Patil met in Mumbai on Thursday to pick the probables. This 30-man squad will be pruned to 15 next month.

India launch their title defence on February 15 against Pakistan in Adelaide. The tournament gets under way on February 14. The final is on March 29 in Melbourne.

Only four from the last World Cup - MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and R Ashwin have made the cut. The selectors have preferred youngsters.

The 32-year-old Yuvraj, who was the Man-of-the-series in 2011 World Cup, has been ignored for India ODI duty since December, 2013. Sehwag, 36, last played ODI in January 2013. Gambhir too has been out of the ODI team since January 2013. The 36-year-old Zaheer's last ODI for India was in August 2012. Harbhajan, 34, has not played a ODI since June 2011.

The omissions of these 5 cricketers was expected. With the latest snub by the selection panel to the "Big Five", an era has come to an end in Indian cricket.

All teams will have to announce the final 15 before January 10, 2015.

Here is India's 30-man squad for 2015 World Cup

(12 batsmen, 8 pacemen, 5 spinners, 3 all-rounders, 2 wicketkeepers)

Oldest member - MS Dhoni (Age 33)

Youngest - Kuldeep Yadav (Age 19)

Batsmen (12)

1. MS Dhoni (Jharkhand/Chennai Super Kings)

2. Virat Kohli (Delhi/Royal Challengers Bangalore)

3. Shikhar Dhawan (Delhi/Sunrisers Hyderabad)

4. Rohit Sharma (Mumbai/Mumbai Indians)

5. Ajinkya Rahane (Mumbai/Rajasthan Royals)

6. Suresh Raina (Uttar Pradesh/CSK)

7. Ambati Rayudu (Baroda/MI)

8. Robin Uthappa (Karnataka/Kolkata Knight Riders)

9. Manoj Tiwary (Bengal/Delhi Daredevils)

10. Murali Vijay (Tamil Nadu/DD)

11. Kedar Jadhav (Maharashtra/DD)

12. Manish Pandey (Karnataka/KKR)

All-rounders (3)

13. Ravindra Jadeja (Saurashtra/CSK)

14. Axar Patel (Gujarat/Kings XI Punjab)

15. Stuart Binny (Karnataka/RR)

Pacemen (8)

16. Bhuvneshwar Kumar (Uttar Pradesh/Sunrisers)

17. Mohammed Shami (Bengal/DD)

18. Ishant Sharma (Delhi/Sunrisers)

19. Umesh Yadav (Vidarbha/KKR)

20. Varun Aaron (Jharkhand/DD)

21. Ashok Dinda (Bengal/RCB)

22. Mohit Sharma (Haryana/CSK)

23. Dhawal Kulkarni (Mumbai/RR)

Spinners (5)

24. Parvez Rasool (Jammu and Kashmir/Sunrisers)

25. Kuldeep Yadav (Uttar Pradesh/KKR) - Read:

26. R Ashwin (Tamil Nadu/CSK)

27. Amit Mishra (Haryana/Sunrisers)

28. Karn Sharma (Railways/Sunrisers)

Wicketkeepers (2)

29. Wriddhiman Saha (Bengal/KXIP)

30. Sanju Samson (Kerala/RR)

Note: Uthappa, Rayudu can also keep wickets. Dhoni included in batsmen's list. So India have 5 stumpers in all.

These 11 missed out. They played the 2011 World Cup

Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Munaf Patel, Piyush Chawla, S Sreesanth (banned), Yusuf Pathan, Ashish Nehra, Sachin Tendulkar (retired)

India's 15 players who won the

MS Dhoni (captain), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Gautam Gambhir, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, S Sreesanth, Ashish Nehra, R Ashwin, Piyush Chawla, Munaf Patel.

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