Picture Credit: BCCI
Prior to the highly-anticipated men's T20 World Cup 2021, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced the country's squad for the world event set to be played in the United Arab Emirates and Oman. Notably, the Virat Kohli-led team has been placed alongside Pakistan, New Zealand and Afghanistan in Group 2. These teams will be joined by two more teams who will secure qualification after Round 1. Meanwhile, Group 1 has teams like Australia, England, South Africa, West Indies and two other teams who will be determined after the qualifying round.
The Indian team is largely along expected lines. Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul have been named the frontline openers for the T20 World Cup. They were more or less guaranteed a selection, especially after they formed a successful pair at the top of the order in the recent Test series against England. Meanwhile, Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, T Natarajan and Yuzvendra Chahal failed to make a cut into the squad. The Indian middle-order consists of players like Rishabh Pant, Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan. It is worth noting that another star middle-order batsman Shreyas Iyer has been selected as reserve.
On the other hand, Jasprit Bumrah is set to lead the team's pace attack along with Mohammed Shami and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Notably, Deepak Chahar and Shardul Thakur have been picked as reserve players. In a big surprise, Chahal missed out, while other star spinners- Varun Chakravarthy, Rahul Chahar, Axar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin were roped in. As far as the all-rounders are concerned, Hardik Pandya is set to play a crucial role.
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India's squad for T20 World Cup 2021:
The T20 World Cup is set to commence on Sunday, October 17, 2021. While the Virat Kohli-led side has been a consistent team in world cricket, they have failed to clinch even a single ICC trophy since the 2013 Champions Trophy triumph. Not only did they lose the semifinal of the ODI World Cup to New Zealand, but they also lost the ICC World Test Championship final against the same opponent at Southampton. To date, India have just one T20 World Cup win to their credit, which came under the leadership of MS Dhoni in the inaugural edition in 2007.
India kick off their T20 World Cup campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan on October 24. The final of the tournament is slated to be held on November 14.
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