India's champions trophy title defensive with Yuvraj KN Chittiruthu

Sports |  IANS  | Published :

Dubai, May 10:After 11 years in the ICC Champions Trophy, Indian batsman Yuvraj Singh hopes for "meaningful cooperation" to help save his title during the June 1-18 tournament in England.

South Pan hosted a sensational field for India in the 2002 event at Kenya and appeared in all shows until 2006 and 2013, missing from the 2006 event.

"I am delighted to be returning to the India side for the 50-over ICC tournament and look forward to making a meaningful contribution as the side aims to defend its title," Yuvraj was quoted as saying in an International Cricket Council (ICC) statement.

"Like any other ICC tournament, it will be a challenging event with each team arriving there believing it can lift the silverware on 18 June at The Oval."

India are clubbed alongside Pakistan, South Africa and Sri Lanka in one of the two groups, which Yuvraj acknowledged as tough but exuded confidence that the side will retain the crown.

"We are in a tough group, but at the same time we are a form side following a highly successful domestic season. We will target to carry forward the winning momentum into the ICC Champions Trophy so that we can become the second side after Australia to win back to back titles," Yuvraj said.

Yuvraj, a veteran of 296 One-day Internationals (ODI) further said India have always felt at home while playing in England.

"The United Kingdom is an excellent location to host the ICC Champions Trophy. We have always felt at home away from home due to the overwhelming support we always receive there," he said.

India has retained eight players from the successful team of 2013, namely Virat Kohli, who will captain India for the first time in a major ICC event, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shikhar Dhawan, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rohit Sharma and Umesh Yadav.

For Dhoni, it will be his fourth appearance while former Pakistan skipper Shoaib Malik will be making his sixth successive appearance in the marquee tournament.

Only six other players played in six ICC Champions Trophy tournaments. They are Ricky Ponting (Australia), Rahul Dravid (India), Daniel Vettori (New Zealand), Mark Boucher and Jacques Kallis (South Africa) and Sanath Jayasuriya, Mahela Jayawardana and Kumara Sangakkara (all Sri Lanka).

All the teams can make changes to their teams without ICC approval until May 24.All players requests from May 25 are required to be approved by the Event Technical Committee.








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