Chawla, Ashwin in WC 15; Rohit, Sreesanth miss out

The five-member selection panel, headed by Krishnamachari Srikkanth, ignored Rohit Sharma and went for the tried and tested in India's final 15-member squad for the ICC World Cup, to be held in the sub-continent from February 19.

Most of the big names, including Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, who are down with injuries, were named in the squad.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni will lead the team while Sehwag will play in the role of deputy.

The selectors, who met for around 90 minutes in Chennai to finalise the team, picked three specialist spinners, considering that the high profile-event will be held in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, and four seamers.

Leg-spinner Piyush Chawla, who last played an ODI in 2008, made the cut along with R Ashwin, who is also a useful batsman, with Harbhajan Singh leading the spin attack.

It was heartbreak for S Sreesanth, who was overlooked in favour of Delhi pacer Ashish Nehra, while the big-hittng Yusuf Pathan also made the cut.

"Taking into account all the conditions like wickets, the opposition we will be playing, the selectors have chosen a very well-balanced team," said Srikkanth after the meeting.

The team:

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