PS: Shardul Thakur was roped in place of Axar Patel later on.
The Super 12 stage of 7th Edition of ICC T20 World Cup is around the corner. The Board of Control for Cricket in India has announced an official 15-member squad along with 3 reserves and 8 net-bowlers for the big tournament. India’s campaign starts against the arch rivals Pakistan on 24th of October. To break down the squad, it includes 6 batsmen, 3 all-rounders, 3 spinners, and 3 pacers. The 3 all-rounders consist of 2 pace-bowling all-rounders and 1 spin-bowling all-rounder. The squad has 2 official wicket-keepers and 1 backup wicket-keeper. The biggest surprise and the most unexpected news was about the former India Captain MS Dhoni being appointed as the Mentor of Indian team for the 2021 T20 World Cup.
While the overall squad looks quite potent for the upcoming tournament, it has quite a few surprising or rather shocking elements. So, here’s a complete breakdown analysis of Team India’s squad for the T20 World Cup 2021. For better understanding, we will analyze the squad in different categories.
Openers: Team India have got one of the best opening duos in the tournament as they have gone with recognized openers in the form of KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma at the top. They also have a solid backup option with a young left-handed pocket dynamo in Ishan Kishan. The Jharkhand born can also keep wickets and bat in the middle order if needed. Unfortunately, Shikhar Dhawan misses out.
KL Rahul
Rohit Sharma
Ishan Kishan (WK)
Middle Order: The Middle Order comprises of captain Virat Kohli who has won Man of the Tournament twice in the T20 World Cup (2014 and 2016). India has also got Suryakumar Yadav who has been in terrific touch in the last 2-3 years period and also has performed well whenever he got an opportunity to play for team India. Rishabh Pant adds the ideal option of a left-handed in top 5 for India who can also prove to be an impactful game changer in the batting lineup.
Virat Kohli (C)
Suryakumar Yadav
Rishabh Pant (WK)
All Rounders: All Rounders play a vital role as they bring balance to the team. Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja are definitely the first-choice all-rounders for Team India, but Shardul Thakur who has been in a magical form lately cannot be ignored and he could be very much a part of the playing 11 considering Hardik’s lack of bowling and Bhuvneshwar's poor form in recent times.
Hardik Pandya
Ravindra Jadeja
Shardul Thakur
Spin Bowlers: Spinners will have a crucial role in UAE conditions. Probably the biggest shocker in the T20 World Cup squad is the omission of Team India’s best spinner since 2018, Yuzvendra Chahal. The exclusion goes beyond understanding as a regular member of Team India’s playing 11 has been shockingly omitted. Instead of Yuzvendra Chahal, the selectors have shown confidence in the leg-spin of Rahul Chahar and a 4 year long wait comeback for India’s premier off spinner - Ravichandran Ashwin. The reason for the inclusion of Ashwin in the squad is a necessity of an off-spinner in the absence of Washington Sundar, who also could also bring on his experience in a big tournament. But the great news in the spinners category is the inclusion of the mystery spinner, Varun Chakravarthy. The Tamil Nadu lad has been performing really well in IPL, and can be Team India’s trump card for the T20 World Cup.
Rahul Chahar
Varun Chakravarthy
Ravichandran Ashwin
Pacers: The pace department seems the only place which is as per expectations. Team India have gone with the tried and tested experienced combination of Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and Mohammed Shami. If the pitch suits pace bowling, Indian team would be prompted to play all 3 in the line-up.
Jasprit Bumrah
Mohammed Shami
Bhuvneshwar Kumar
Reserves: Apart from the 15-man squad, India have also picked 3 reserves.
Shreyas Iyer
Axar Patel
Deepak Chahar
Net Bowlers: The selectors also added eight players as net bowlers among which Avesh Khan, Umran Malik and Harshal Patel were the obvious choices. Venkatesh Iyer, Shahbaz Ahmed, K Gowtham, Lukman Meriwala and Karn Sharma too earned call-ups as a net bowler.
Probable Playing Combination:
Rohit Sharma
KL Rahul
Virat Kohli (c)
Suryakumar Yadav
Rishabh Pant (wk)
Hardik Pandya
Ravindra Jadeja
Mohammed Shami
Jasprit Bumrah
Any Two Among: Ravichandran Ashwin / Varun Chakravarthy / Bhuvneshwar Kumar
Strength:
The major strength Indian team possesses is the presence of formidable and impact players in every position. Right from square one India has a squad packed with big match winners who are superstars of the Indian cricket. The likes of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah in a team makes the structure of the team an intimidating one. Experiences of these senior players will become quite handy in later stages of the tournament.
Also, the likes of Rishabh Pant and Ishan Kishan could prove to be the x-factor of this India team if they bring out their A-game.
All the players know their roles and responsibilities quite well. India has one of the decent bowling attacks currently. The pace bowling options are such which has all the variations required and at the same time the spin attack looks quite potent.
Probable Weakness:
In recent times, the Indian selectors and management are concerned about the performances of Hardik Pandya who is going through a pale form in his career. Ever since the all-rounder has returned from his injury, he has been out of touch.
The recent Sri Lankan limited-overs tour and the IPL was a tough time for the all-rounder.
Moreover, he has lacked overs with the ball going in such a huge tournament. Virat Kohli loves to bat deep and the presence of Hardik Pandya at 6 or 7 usually makes the job easier for the skipper. His pale form might hurt the Indian side in the T20 World Cup.
But as is said, it will just be a matter of 1 game for Hardik to return back to the form.
Another concern is Indian bowlers have not been able to take wickets in powerplay overs since the last 2 years, which puts the opposition batting unit ahead in the game and also in turns puts extra pressure on spinners in the middle overs to get breakthroughs.
Chances at the tournament:
India would be one of the favorites to win the T20 world cup along with the 2 times Champions West Indies and 2010 Champion England. India's road map is expected to be easy in the league stage and is expected that they would qualify for the semis without much trouble but T20 being the shortest and an unpredictable format, any team could win on a given particular day. Also once into knockouts (if they manage to do so), India will have to rectify the mistakes of the past few years so as to clinch the 2021 edition of the T20 World Cup.
