India's T20 World Cup Squad: MS Dhoni Named Mentor; Shikhar Dhawan, Yuzvendra Chahal Miss Out, R Ashwin, Varun Chakravarthy, Rahul Chahar Make the Cut

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. MS Dhoni will be part of the squad as a mentor.

“Former India Captain MS Dhoni to mentor the team for the T20 World Cup" - BCCI Secretary Jay Shah said during the team announcement.

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, allrounder’s Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel also find a place in



the squad while finger spinner Varun Chakravarthy also makes the cut.

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

Any team can have more than 30-member squads but the extra cost is supposed to be borne by the country’s cricket board.

India are placed in the same group as Pakistan for the ICC T20 World Cup 2021. The T20 World Cup will be held in UAE and Oman between October 17 and November 14.

India are placed in Group 2 of the Super 12s, with Pakistan, New Zealand, Afghanistan and the other two qualifiers from Round 1. Defending champions West Indies, England, Australia and South Africa are in Group 1 along with two qualifiers from Round 1.

Group A: Sri Lanka, Ireland, Netherlands, Namibia

Group B: Bangladesh, Scotland, Papua New Guinea, Oman

Below is the complete schedule of India for ICC T20 World Cup 2021:

24th October 2021: India vs Pakistan, 7:30 PM, Dubai

31st October 2021 India vs New Zealand, 7:30 PM, Dubai

3rd November 2021 India vs Afghanistan, 7:30 PM, Abu Dhabi

5th November 2021 India vs B1, 7:30 PM, Dubai

8th November 2021 India vs A2, 7:30 PM Dubai.