Zaheer Khan picks his India squad for ICC T20 World Cup 2021
Zaheer Khan picked Rahul Chahar as back-up spinner in the squad.
The all-important T20 World Cup 2021 is scheduled to be held this year. Meanwhile, cricket experts, former cricketers have been coming up with their respective squads for the event. On the same note, former Indian cricketer Zaheer Khan named his India squad as well.
Zaheer Khan came up with a well-balanced 15-member squad. However, Shikhar Dhawan didn’t find a place in the retired left-arm pacer’s squad. It seems Zaheer wasn’t convinced with the way Dhawan approached the T20I series against Sri Lanka.
The southpaw was tactically poor as the captain and also failed to make an impact with the bat. Dhawan was dismissed for a duck in the T20I decider in Colombo. India lost the series by 1-2 under his leadership. Kuldeep Yadav, who has been in and out of the Indian team also didn’t find a place in the squad.
Zaheer Khan names his India squad for T20 WC 2021
Talking about the opening pair, the former pacer named Rohit Sharma and Lokesh Rahul. The Indian captain Virat Kohli and Suryakumar Yadav follow next. Zaheer Khan also opines that if Hardik Pandya doesn’t bowl then the team should go for an extra bowler than a batsman.
“I will open with KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma. Virat and Surya will follow them. I know Virat has made the statement that he wants to open the innings. But I would still say that Virat only opens in case Hardik is not available to bowl. In that scenario, you can sacrifice one batsman and get an extra bowler,” Zaheer told on Cricbuzz.
Zaheer named two leg-spinners namely Rahul Chahar and Yuzvendra Chahal. Bhuvneshwar Kumar who bagged a four-wicket haul in the T20I opener has been named in Zaheer’s line-up.
“I have Chahal as the lead leg spinner and also went in with Rahul Chahar as his backup. In this format, we have seen that leg spinner is such a crucial factor. Chakravarthy/Sundar will be the spinners who would be bowling with the new ball. If you want that mystery element, you can choose Chakravarthy, but otherwise, you can go in with Sundar as well”, he added.
Zaheer Khan’s squad
Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli (c), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Deepak Chahar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Rahul Chahar, T Natarajan/Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Washington Sundar/Varun Chakravarthy
