Mumbai, Apr 30: The T20 World Cup tournament will begin in the next few days, and the buzz in the Indian cricket fraternity has been around the selection of the final 15 for the Indian squad. BCCI’s chief of selection committee Ajit Agarkar is all set to announce India’s 15-member squad for the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 on Monday. But ahead of the big announcement, the former India cricketer, who reportedly flew from Spain to Delhi for Saturday’s IPL 2024 match between Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals, will have an informal chat with captain Rohit Sharma on the possible squad for the tournament in June.The committee are set to incur a number of selection headaches which begins with defining Virat Kohli’s role in the squad amid veteran cricketers and experts wanting the former captain to open for India following Ā a stellar show for RCB in IPL 2024. This is would subsequently leave the selectors to pick one between Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill for the backup role.
The major dilemma in the Indian squad surrounds the wicketkeeping spot with Rishabh Pant, Sanju Samson, KL Rahul and even Dinesh Karthik emerging as top contenders for the possible two slots in the Indian side. However, the major worry for the Indian team pertains to Hardik Pandya’s form in IPL 2024. Pandya has so far bowled 19 overs out of a possible 36 in nine games for Mumbai Indians. As a designated finisher, he has hit only 10 sixes in these games, which is below par by every measure. The free-flowing bat-swing is completely missing in the 196 odd runs that he has scored in the tournament so far at a strike-rate of 142. Although, what favours Pandya is that there are no like-for-like alternative for the selectors as Shivam Dube, who is also expected to board the New York-bound flight, isn’t bowling either. Also in terms of skill and pace, Dube the bowler isn’t anywhere close to Pandya but his current batting form (22 sixes in eight games) can’t be ignored either.