The T20 World Cup 2021 is less than 40 days away now and all the boards are about to announce their squad. Keeping with the 30-day deadline, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) would be announcing the Indian squad for the T20 World Cup 2021 by Wednesday, 08 September evening.
OneCricket decided to break down the probable squad for the readers. And here’s how the Indian squad could look like and why
Virat Kohli (Capt), Rohit Sharma (Vice Capt), KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Shreyas Iyer, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Rahul Chahar, Yuzvendara Chahal, Deepak Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakravarthy, Mohammad Shami
Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan and Shikhar Dhawan
Openers
The Indian team would look to go with its two best and most experienced batters in Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma as openers as it tried and tested the formula in the T20I series against England and moreover skipper Kohli and management want to go with it.
The middle-order
Next comes the remaining batters and since Suryakumar Yadav proved his adaptability by batting brilliantly in Sro Lanka, he makes the curt. Shreyas Iyer has recovered from his injury and considering his form on spinning tracks for UAE, it was only justified that he was given a chance. KL Rahul is in great knock and could be used at number four as an alternate to Iyer.
Wicket-Keepers
Ishan Kishan and Rishabh pant are the wicket keepers as it is necessary to have two wicket keepers going into a World Cup level. Moreover, Sanju Samson wasn’t able to convert his chances in Sri Lanka and thus it would be easier for selectors to make the decision.
All-rounders
Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja walk into the team straight away as proven all-around talents and especially on spin-friendly wickets the two can give a massive boost to the squad. With Washington Sundar getting injured, it was imperative that India could afford to go with only two pure all-rounders.
Bowlers
With two genuine all-rounders, two wicket-keeper batsmen and five pure batsmen in the squad, only six bowlers could be chosen and thus the six being divided equally among pacers and spinners could be an idea that the Indian team would like to implement.
Hence Yuzvendar Chahal, Deepak Chahar and Varun Chakravarthy look like the three spinners making the cut. Among the fast bowlers, it would be a tough fight between Mohammad Shami and Bhuveneshwar Kumar, however, Shami seems to be edging it at the moment due to Bhuvi’s poor returns in Sri Lanka.
Reserves
Due to the Covid-19 still in prevalence, the International Cricket Council has allowed all teams to carry at max three reserves. T Natarajan would be the first one to make it to the reserves list. If he shows great form and fitness in IPL can be drafted in the squad because his fitness at the moment is under doubt.
Since Bhuvneshwar could not make it to the main squad, it would be only fair that he was at least kept in reserves. Although Shardul Thakur can give a tough fight to him even for this place. Lastly, courtesy of his experience, Shikhar Dhawan makes a case for himself.