New Delhi - The Champions Trophy is set to hail the comeback kings as Shane Bond, Rahul Dravid, Mohammad Asif and Ashish Nehra return from the international wilderness.
The quartet will be playing their first major one-day tournament after spending more than a year on the sidelines.
New Zealand paceman Bond has already shown in a couple of recent one-dayers in Sri Lanka that he had been sorely missed, rattling the home side with three wickets in his comeback match.
Injuries and a stint with unofficial Indian Cricket League (ICL) forced Bond out of action for more than two years before he returned for a tri-series in Sri Lanka -- only to prove he had not lost his sharpness.
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"It's been a long time coming and it's something I never thought would happen again," Bond said ahead of the triangular series.
"It feels like I am starting all over again. I think I set myself pretty high standards and it's up to me to meet those. I always strive to be the best bowler in the world, nothing's changed there."
Dravid, 36, was axed in favour of youngsters soon after Mahendra Singh Dhoni led a young side to the Twenty20 World Cup trimph in South Africa two years ago.
Nicknamed "The Wall" for his solid technique and sound temperament, Dravid has been the mainstay of India's batting for more than a decade, having scored more than 10,000 runs in one-day internationals.
The selectors felt the need of an experienced batsman in the middle order after some of the younger players looked vulnerable against short-pitched deliveries in the Twenty20 World Cup in England this year.
Dravid, who figured in a recent tri-seies in Sri Lanka, said he had nothing to prove at this stage.
"I have never played my cricket that way, wanting to prove a point," Dravid said after being recalled in nearly two years.
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