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Praveen Kumar's injured elbow of the bowling hand has ruled him out of the World Cup. For a little over three years he's been an important cog in the wheel of India's seam attack.
His skill to manipulate the seam in the early overs and in heavy atmosphere and also the knack of getting wickets saw him pick up two Man-of-the-match awards in the Commonwealth Bank series against Australia in 2008.
The awards came in his third and fifth One-Day Internationals at Hobart, Tasmania and at the Gabba, Brisbane. All the good tidings came after sending down 20 wicket-less overs for 99 runs against Pakistan at Jaipur and against Australia at Adelaide.
In fact, in three of the next four matches he returned four-wicket hauls, the third one against Bangladesh at Sher-e-Bangla Stadium, Mirpur where India begins its World Cup campaign on February 19.
Inconsistent
Thereafter the Meerut-born has been woefully inconsistent, picking up two wickets in six matches. Each one of his nine wickets in 14 home internationals have cost him 67 runs, going wicket-less in eight matches.
His other 48 wickets — taken in Australia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, West Indies and South Africa — have come at a very impressive 27.29.
But the 24-year-old has not been the lone bowler to suffer on featherbed Indian pitches. Facts and figures indicate a highly successful run for India against all teams other than Australia in home ODIs after the ICC Champions Trophy in 2006.
India has won 30 ODIs and lost 15, but won nine series, losing two series by 2-4 margins to Australian team led by Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting.
The victories, however, were achieved because of the batsmen's ability to post big runs on the scoreboard for the bowlers to restrict the rival batsmen. The storyline would be much the same in the forthcoming World Cup.
His skill to manipulate the seam in the early overs and in heavy atmosphere and also the knack of getting wickets saw him pick up two Man-of-the-match awards in the Commonwealth Bank series against Australia in 2008.
The awards came in his third and fifth One-Day Internationals at Hobart, Tasmania and at the Gabba, Brisbane. All the good tidings came after sending down 20 wicket-less overs for 99 runs against Pakistan at Jaipur and against Australia at Adelaide.
In fact, in three of the next four matches he returned four-wicket hauls, the third one against Bangladesh at Sher-e-Bangla Stadium, Mirpur where India begins its World Cup campaign on February 19.
Inconsistent
Thereafter the Meerut-born has been woefully inconsistent, picking up two wickets in six matches. Each one of his nine wickets in 14 home internationals have cost him 67 runs, going wicket-less in eight matches.
His other 48 wickets — taken in Australia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, West Indies and South Africa — have come at a very impressive 27.29.
But the 24-year-old has not been the lone bowler to suffer on featherbed Indian pitches. Facts and figures indicate a highly successful run for India against all teams other than Australia in home ODIs after the ICC Champions Trophy in 2006.
India has won 30 ODIs and lost 15, but won nine series, losing two series by 2-4 margins to Australian team led by Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting.
The victories, however, were achieved because of the batsmen's ability to post big runs on the scoreboard for the bowlers to restrict the rival batsmen. The storyline would be much the same in the forthcoming World Cup.