Pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Harshal Patel, who missed the recently concluded Asia Cup due to injuries, were back as the Board of Control for Cricket in India announced the 15-man squad for the T20 World Cup. Ravindra Jadeja, who recently had knee surgery following a ‘freak’ injury, did not make the cut.
Rohit Sharma will lead the side in the World Cup, and KL Rahul will be his deputy in the marquee tournament, which will take place in Australia, starting October 16.
Bumrah, who had a back injury, and Harshal, who had a side strain, had undergone intensive rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy, and the BCCI medical team has cleared them to play in the marquee series. The other two pacers in the squad are Arshdeep Singh and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, as well as all-rounder Hardik Pandya.
Pacer Avesh Khan and leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi are however set to miss out on World Cup spots with Ravichandran Ashwin replacing the latter. Avesh had a very little chance of making the cut once Harshal was fit and available, especially with a death overs economy rate of 18 in recent times.
The batting unit, which hasn’t always delivered on big days, has mostly remained the same, and there aren’t any new faces from the previous T20 World Cup squad aside from Deepak Hooda, who won’t always be an automatic first XI player.
Dinesh Karthik, a veteran wicketkeeper-batsman, has been called up and will be the team’s second keeper, alongside Rishabh Pant. Axar Patel, who played in India’s final Asia Cup match against Afghanistan, has been named as a replacement for Jadeja.
Mohammed Shami, along with fellow spearhead Deepak Chahar, leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi, and batter Shreyas Iyer have been named as standby players.
