Cricket: Team-by-team guide to the Champions Trophy

Australia

Everyone's favourite, Australia, warmed up impressively for this tournament by annihilating the West Indies in the final of the DFL Cup, and will be at short odds to win despite yesterday's loss of seam bowler Stuart Clark.

Cricket Australia announced that Clark had suffered a tear in his left quadriceps playing club cricket and requires at least four to six weeks of recovery time. Skipper Ricky Ponting is mindful of how close Australia have come in the past to lifting the trophy and believes that his side has what it takes to carry off the title this time in India.

"We have been knocked out in the semifinal in the last two Champions Trophies, but we definitely have the squad and the players to challenge seriously this year. We've played some good cricket in Indian conditions before, so we can go there now with confidence."

Australia have won 10 of their past 14 completed ODIs, their only losses being three against South Africa and one upset defeat to the West Indies last month, when experimenting with their batting order.

South Africa

New Zealand's first opponent in the tournament, South Africa have risen to No 2 on the ODI ladder despite a summer of discontent last season, when Australia played them off the park at home and away.

The one notable triumph in South Africa's most recent 15 ODIs (8 wins, 7 losses) was their record-breaking chase in the 5th ODI at the Wanderers in March, when they overhauled Australia's 434 with one wicket and one ball remaining.

The slight unknown in the South African squad is hard-hitting opening batsman Loots Bosman, who made his debut against Zimbabwe after initially being chosen for the eventually abandoned series in Sri Lanka.

Otherwise, the South Africans appear bristling with firepower in the pace bowling and batting departments; the only genuine area of doubt being their historically limited slow bowling reserves. With that in mind, it's hard to figure out why the selectors opted to dump spin-bowling allrounder Nicky Boje.

Pakistan

Inzamam ul-Haq will not be present for Pakistan's first four games but his enforced suspension is only likely to make the Lions roar louder.

Stand-in skipper Younis Khan gave an indication of the depth of feeling within the squad recently when he said, "It goes without saying that 'Inzi' will be missed, any team would miss a class player like him. But it has made us even more determined to do well".

"We want to win the Champions Trophy for him. We will be inspired knowing that he will be watching us from home and would want us to win."

Faisal Iqbal has replaced Inzamam in the squad, which isn't necessarily bad news for Pakistan because the last time Iqbal replaced Inzi (at Karachi earlier this year), he made a hundred.

Pakistan haven't had a vintage season so far, having lost seven of their last 13 completed ODIs, but have the talent and experience to be a front-runner in the relatively familiar surroundings of India.

India

Apart from England's staggering slide in the ODI rankings, the next least impressive performance among the eight established nations has come from India, who - by rights - should be the tournament favourites.

But losses to England at home, a 4-1 defeat in the West Indies and then a solitary win in four outings at the DFL Cup in Malaysia have left enormous question marks over the team, the captain Rahul Dravid, and coach Greg Chappell.

But the fact that India will be playing at home and that they will have star batsman Sachin Tendulkar back from a shoulder lay-off, means their recent disappointment may not count for much.

For all their troubles on the road, India have not lost an ODI series at home for more than a year, having comfortably outplayed Sri Lanka 6-1 and England 5-1, while drawing 2-2 with South Africa.


HOW THEY LINE UP

New Zealand
Stephen Fleming (c), Nathan Astle, Shane Bond, James Franklin, Peter Fulton, Mark Gillespie, Brendon McCullum, Hamish Marshall, Kyle Mills, Jacob Oram, Jeetan Patel, Scott Styris, Daniel Vettori, Lou Vincent.

Bangladesh
Habibul Bashar (c), Shahriar Nafees, Khaled Mashud, Mohammad Rafique, Mohammad Ashraful, Mashrafe Mortaza, Rajin Saleh, Abdur Razzak, Aftab Ahmed, Syed Rasel, Shahadat Hossain, Farhad Reja, Saqibul Hasan, Mehrab Hossain.

Pakistan
Younis Khan (c), Imran Farhat, Mohammad Yousuf, Abdul Razzaq, Shoaib Akhtar, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Kamran Akmal, Rana Naved, Mohammad Asif, Umar Gul, Mohammad Hafeez, Rao Iftikhar.
Note: Faisal Iqbal called into replace suspended Inzamam-ul-Haq, but ICC to ratify

Australia
Ricky Ponting (c), Adam Gilchrist, Nathan Bracken, Stuart Clark, Michael Clarke, Brad Hogg, Michael Hussey, Mitchell Johnson, Simon Katich, Brett Lee, Damien Martyn, Glenn McGrath, Shane Watson, Andrew Symonds.

India
Rahul Dravid (c), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Dinesh Mongia, Suresh Raina, Mahendra Dhoni, Ramesh Powar, Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan, Ajit Agarkar, Rudra Pratap Singh, Munaf Patel.

Sri Lanka
Mahela Jayawardene (c), Kumar Sangakkara, Sanath Jayasuriya, Marvan Atapattu, Upul Tharanga, Tillkaratne Dilshan, Chamara Kapugedara, Farveez Maharoof, Chaminda Vaas, Ruchira Perera, Dilhara Fernando, Lasith Malinga, Malinga Bandara, Muttiah Muralitharan.

South Africa
Graeme Smith (c), Loots Bosman, Mark Boucher, AB de Villiers, Boeta Dippenaar, Herschelle Gibbs, Andrew Hall, Jacques Kallis, Justin Kemp, Charl Langeveldt, Andre Nel, Makhaya Ntini, Robin Peterson, Shaun Pollock.

West Indies
Brian Lara (c), Ramnaresh Sarwan, Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Runako Morton, Dwayne Bravo, Dwayne Smith, Carlton Baugh, Corey Collymore, Fidel Edwards, Ian Bradshaw, Jerome Taylor, Marlon Samuels, Wavell Hinds.

Zimbabwe
Prosper Utseya (c), Stuart Matsikenyeri, Brendan Taylor, Vusi Sibanda, Elton Chigumbura, Hamilton Masakadza, Terry Duffin, Tawanda Mupariwa, Ed Rainsford, Piet Rinke, Anthony Ireland, Gregory Strydom, Chamu Chibhabha, Tafadzwa Kamungozi.

England
Andrew Flintoff (c), James Anderson, Ian Bell, Rikki Clarke, Paul Collingwood, Jamie Dalrymple, Stephen Harmison, Ed Joyce, Sajid Mahmood, Jon Lewis, Kevin Pietersen, Chris Read, Andrew Strauss, Michael Yardy.

ODI Rankings
1 Australia
2 South Africa
3 Pakistan
4 New Zealand
5 India
6 Sri Lanka
7 West Indies
8 England
9 Zimbabwe
10 Bangladesh
11 Kenya