India’s complete 15 men squad for the ICC T20 World Cup 2021, predicted by Zaheer Khan.
ICC T20 World Cup 2021: Former Indian ace pacer Zaheer Khan has revealed his choice of 15 men Indian squad for the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup, which is slated to be held in the UAE and Oman, October 17 onwards. The veteran cricket has left behind some notable names while picking his squad.
Khan, who has over 600 wickets across formats for India, overlooked chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav along with all-rounder Krunal Pandya. Other well known missing players in his list were Shreyas Iyer and Shardul Thakur, who have been doing well for India in the shortest format.
Iyer, 26 years old, is currently recovering from his shoulder injury which he sustained during the India vs England home series.
The pace stalwart went with Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul as his two first-choice openers in the upcoming T20 World Cup 2021. Both the Indian openers share a great camaraderie and have fantastic records in the format.
“I will open with KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma. Virat and Surya will follow them. I know Virat has made the statement that he wants to open the innings. But I would still say that Virat only opens in case Hardik is not available to bowl. In that scenario, you can sacrifice one batsman and get an extra bowler,” said Zaheer Khan in Cricbuzz live post-match show.
He further backed his Mumbai Indians (MI) batsman Suryakumar Yadav to come at four. Yadav impressed everyone ever since he stepped into the international schedule for India. The dashing batsman is consistent and owing to which he has received his ODI cap and maiden Test call-up.
He then picked up wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant and all-rounder Hardik Pandya at 5 and 6. The duo will add firepower to India’s batting unit along with depth.
Picking up his spinners, the former pacer went with two impressive leggie’s in Rahul Chahar and Yuzvendra Chahal. To everyone’s surprise, Khan left out left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav from the T20I squad.
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Furthermore, the veteran bowler added mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy to the squad along with all-rounder Washington Sundar.
“I have Chahal as the lead leg spinner and also went in with Rahul Chahar as his backup. In this format, we have seen that leg spinner is such a crucial factor. Chakravarthy/Sundar will be the spinners who would be bowling with the new ball. If you want that mystery element, you can choose Chakravarthy, but otherwise, you can go in with Sundar as well,” Zaheer Khan added.
Soon came another shocking element in Khan’s squad when he uttered that ace pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar is not certain and he kept a choice between T Natarajan and Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
Zaheer Khan, at last, picked genuine pacers Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami, and Deepak Chahar.
India’s complete 15 men squad for ICC T20 World Cup 2021:
Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli (c), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Deepak Chahar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Rahul Chahar, T Natarajan/Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Washington Sundar/Varun Chakravarthy.
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