India go for form players for World Twenty20

India on Monday rewarded Rudra Pratap Singh and Pragyan Ojha for their recent good form by picking them in a 15-man squad to defend the World Twenty20 title in England next month.

Left-arm seamer Singh, who last donned India colours against England in November, was recalled after picking 12 wickets from six games in the ongoing Indian Premier League in South Africa.

Ojha, a left-arm spinner, is the second-most successful Indian bowler in the IPL after his Deccan Chargers teammate Singh, with 10 wickets in six matches.

Singh grabbed 12 wickets in the inaugural Twenty20 Worlds in South Africa in 2007 - one less than leading taker Umar Gul of Pakistan - to fashion India's spectacular title-winning campaign.

Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni's team will also be bolstered by the inclusion of pace spearheads Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma, who both missed the world championships two years ago.

India's squad:

Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Virender Sehwag (vice-capt), Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Rohit Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, Rudra Pratap Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Pragyan Ojha, Irfan Pathan.

AFP