The bustling form of several Indian pace bowlers in the ongoing IPL looks to be the only major discussion point on Saturday in the corridors of the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai, when India's squad for the ICC Champions Trophy is announced. This summer's tournament will be held in England where seam and swing bowling will find favour and that India's selectors have several names to ponder over can only be a good sign.
From India's last ODI squad, the men to drop out are most likely going to be Ashok Dinda and Shami Ahmed for two new pace-bowling faces. India have not played 50-over cricket since January, which leaves the selectors to pick the 15-man squad largely on reputation and IPL form. Thus, the persons of interest would be Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar, Praveen Kumar and Irfan Pathan. With Ishant Sharma and Bhuvneshwar Kumar certainties having performed creditably in India's last two ODI series and currently enjoying good form in the IPL, two of the four are likely to be picked.
The favorites look to be Umesh and Vinay. Umesh - who has not played an ODI since July 2012 - made a return to competitive cricket at the end of the domestic season and in the IPL has bowled hard and fast to take 13 wickets from ten games so far. The most athletic and quickest of India's crop of pace bowlers, Umesh would be a major asset in England. Vinay currently is the leading
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