IND vs BAN | India's predicted XI for first T20I against Bangladesh in Delhi
In the absence of their captain Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma will lead the Indian T20I team after a rather unconvincing T20 series with South Africa that ended 1-1. All eyes will be on youngsters like Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube, etc. as India look to form a core team for the World T20 in Australia.
Openers
Rohit Sharma: India's stand-in T20I captain Rohit Sharma will lead the side in Kohli's absence in spite of an injury scare during the training session where a throwdown hit the inner side of his abdomen. He has been declared fit to play and will be looking to build on the fantastic form that he showed in the 2019 World Cup and in the Test series against South Africa. One of the finest T20 players of the generation, Rohit will have to shoulder the responsibility of guiding the team in the absence of the talismanic skipper.
Shikhar Dhawan: The Indian team management and selectors have still shown faith in Shikhar Dhawan as India's first-choice openers in T20Is in spite of KL Rahul showing some amazing consistency for the KXIP in the last two seasons of the IPL. He had a good start to the 2019 World Cup with a century against Australia but was ruled out of the rest of the tournament due to a thumb injury. His comeback was far from impressive as he looked rusty in the T20I series versus South Africa. After a not-so-impressive Vijay Hazare Trophy and KL Rahul, on the other hand, impressing in the same tournament, time is running out for Shikhar Dhawan to cement his place in the Indian T20I side even though the management will back him in this series.
Middle Order
Sanju Samson: This might raise a few eyebrows as many might feel that KL Rahul will get a chance ahead of Samson at number three in the absence of Kohli. But Sanju Samson has been super-consistent off-late. Rohit Sharma has shown in his captaincy for Mumbai Indians that he rewards players with chances that show good form and he is bold enough to drop big players. Sanju Samson smashed the fastest double-hundred as he scored an unbeaten 212 runs off just 129 balls against Goa in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. He has been in fine form and has worked a lot on his fitness and thus he is likely to bat at number three in the opening T20I.
Shreyas Iyer: Iyer was mighty impressive as the Delhi Capitals captain in IPL 2019 as he scored 463 runs in 16 matches and was proactive in the field. The kind of maturity that he showed in his batting was rewarded by a call to India's ODI team on the tour of West Indies. He even impressed there with a couple of half-centuries and has almost assured himself of a place at number four.
Rishabh Pant: With Wriddhiman Saha taking the gloves in Tests and Sanju Samson being selected in the T20I squad, many had thought that Rishabh Pant was on the verge of being dropped from the T20I playing eleven due to poor performances off-late. But the team management has backed him and he will be hoping to show some more maturity in his shot selection. The selectors believe that he has the X-factor and the match-winning ability and now is the time for Rishabh Pant to score big runs with more consistency.
All-Rounders
Krunal Pandya: The senior Pandya has always been the utility player for Rohit Sharma in IPL. He has often been sent up the order to bat in case of a batting collapse and has bowled the hard overs in crunch situations. He will surely be a weapon that Rohit will use carefully and will be wanting to make full use of his all-round ability.
Shivam Dube: The Mumbaikar had burst on to the scene after last year's Vijay Hazare Trophy where he impressed playing for Mumbai and was bagged by RCB in the auctions. But some underwhelming performances saw him dropped from the team. But India A's tour of West Indies A was a turning point for him as he had some fantastic performances which brought him back in the national reckoning. With Hardik Pandya recovering from a surgery, Dube will have to grab this opportunity with both hands and will be looking to make an impact.
Washington Sundar: Sundar has been used as a new-ball weapon both in the T20I series against West Indies and South Africa and has done relatively well. His batting ability is also taken under consideration in his selection and thus he proves to be another utility T20 player that Rohit will be able to make the most use of.
Bowlers:
Rahul Chahar: The legspinner was impressive in India A's tour of West Indies A and was one of Rohit's trump cards in Mumbai Indians' title-winning 2019 season. Rohit will be looking to keep faith in the youngsters as T20 has traditionally been ruled by wrist spinners and Rahul Chahar will hope to make full use of the opportunity provided.
Deepak Chahar: The CSK pacer has shown his ability to swing the ball both ways for CSK in the IPL and was also impressive when he played in the third T20I versus the West Indies. Rohit will be banking on Deepak Chahar to swing the ball and take early wickets in the powerplay and put Bangladesh on the back-foot straightaway.
Khaleel Ahmed: With Navdeep Siani out due to injury, Khaleel Ahmed has been selected as an extra bowling option. His left-arm bowling will bring more variety to the Indian bowling attack and he as already shown in the last two seasons of the IPL that he has a knack of taking wickets. This wicket-taking ability can be used by Rohit either upfront in the powerplay or in the middle overs or at the death.