New Delhi: The All-India Senior Selection Committee on Wednesday picked the Indian Cricket Team for the upcoming ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 with Shikhar Dhawan and Yuzvendra Chahal the big ommissions in the 15-member squad. R Ashwin, Varun Chakravarthy and Rahul Chahar make the cut, while Shreyas Iyer, Shardul Thakur and Deepak Chahar are named as standby players.Ashwin, who last played a T20I in 2017, makes a surprise return to the shortest format and the 15-member squad consists of five spinners. The surprise exclusion is that of Yuzvndra Chahal who had a decent in the T20I series in Sri Lanka. leg-spinner Rahul Chahar has earned a spot in the squad after his impressive performances against England and Sri Lanka.
While there are no surprises in the batting unit, Shikhar Dhawan is the big name to miss and it was on expected lines. Ishan Kishan pips Sanju Samson as the back-up wicketkeeper to Rishabh Pant in the 15-member squad while Shreyas Iyer is named in the standbys list. Also in the standbys list in Shardul Thakur, who was expected to be named in the squad proper.
In the pace bowling department, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami and Bhuvneshwar Kumar are the specialist fast bowlers with Pandya likely to play the fourth seamer’s role. Apart from Pandya, allrounders Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel also find a place in the squad while finger spinner Varun Chakravarthy also makes the cut.
‘Former India captain M S Dhoni to mentor the team for the T20 World Cup,’ announced BCCI secretary Jay Shah in a press conference to unveil the squad for the T20 World Cup scheduled to start October 17 in the UAE and Oman.
”(I) spoke to him in Dubai. He agreed to be mentor for World T20 only and I discussed with my colleagues and all are on same page. I spoke to captain (Virat Kohli) and vice captain (Rohit Sharma) and everyone agreed,” he added.
It is believed that Dhoni has been brought in for his experience in devising near-perfect white ball strategies and for knowing what it takes to win crucial ICC tournaments, where trophies have remained elusive for his successor. One of the most successful captains in the history of Indian cricket, the enigmatic wicketkeeper-batsman led India to two world titles — the 2007 T20 World Cup in South Africa and the 2011 ODI World Cup in India.
Dhoni is currently with his IPL team Chennai Super Kings, gearing up for the resumption of the league from September 19 in the UAE.
The reticent player’s retirement, announced by him through an instagram post on August 15 last year, had taken the cricket world by surprise and he has not spoken even once about it after that. The highly-respected wicketkeeper-batsman played 90 Tests, 350 ODIs and 98 T20 Internationals amassing 4876, 10773 and 1617 runs respectively across formats.
He has largely kept a low profile after retiring internationally, focussing on his IPL engagements and organic farming at his home town Ranchi.
India squad for ICC T20 World Cup 2021: Virat Kohli (Capt), Rohit Sharma (vc), KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Rahul Chahar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohd Shami.