India named a 15-member squad for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 on Wednesday with spinners Ravichandran Ashwin, Varun Chakravarthy and Axar Patel all making the cut. Shikhar Dhawan and Yuzvendra Chahal were among the notable exclusions from the World Cup squad.
Virat Kohli will be the captain of the Indian cricket team while Rohit Sharma will fulfill vice-captaincy duties.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India’s honorary secretary Jay Shah announced that MS Dhoni, who was India’s captain during their T20 World Cup triumph in the inaugural edition in 2007, has been named as the team’s mentor.
Shreyas Iyer, Shardul Thakur and Deepak Chahar have been named as the standby players for Team India.
Tamil Nadu duo of Washington Sundar and T Natarajan, who have been recuperating from injuries are also amongst the players who missed out from making it to India’s T20 World Cup squad.
The Men in Blue begin their T20 World Cup 2021 campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan on October 24 at the Dubai International Stadium.
Slotted in Group 2 in the Super 12s, India’s second match of the tournament will see them face New Zealand on October 31, followed by a clash against Afghanistan in Abu Dhabi on November 3.
The last ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in 2016 saw India crash out in the semi-final against eventual champions West Indies.
The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 in Oman and UAE is slated to begin from October 17 with the qualifying rounds.
India’s T20 World Cup 2021 squad
India squad: Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), 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, Mohammed Shami
Standby players: Shreyas Iyer, Shardul Thakur and Deepak Chahar
Featured photo: Dibyangshu Sarkar / AFP
