T20 World Cup 2021 | Varun Chakravarthy will be India's main bowler at T20 WC, reckons Suresh Raina
Suresh Raina is of the opinion that Varun Chakravarthy will be India's premier bowler during the upcoming T20 World Cup, given that the UAE and Oman pitches are conducive for mystery spinners. He further backed Bhuvneshwar Kumar to lead the pace attack with his experience of playing in big matches.
India will be up against arch-rivals Pakistan in their first game of the T20 World Cup 2021 on October 24 in Dubai. India are placed alongside Pakistan, New Zealand and Afghanistan in Group 2 of the Super-12 stage, with two more teams set to join after Round 1.
Given the slow nature of the pitches in the UAE and Oman, India have added four spinners - Ravindra Jadeja, Rahul Chahar, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Varun Chakravarthy - in their 15-member squad.
Suresh Raina believes that Chakravarthy will be India's key bowler in the tournament, given that mystery spinners are especially difficult in such conditions. Chakravarthy bagged 18 wickets while maintaining an excellent economy of 6.59, during Kolkata Knight Riders' run to the final in the recently concluded IPL 2021.
"My experience in the IPL was that the wickets in UAE and Oman will be very, very challenging when it comes to the mystery spinners. That makes Varun Chakravarthy the main guy in the India bowling attack. He has shown he can exploit the pace of the pitches. Varun has only played three T20Is but I'm not concerned by any lack of experience," Raina wrote in his column for ICC.
Earlier this month, India replaced Axar Patel with Shardul Thakur in the squad, while moving the left-arm spinner into the reserves. Shardul is one of the five seam-bowling options in the squad, alongside the experienced trio of Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami , to go with all-rounder Hardik Pandya.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar didn't had the best of returns at IPL 2021, but Raina backed the speedster to lead the attack with his experience. Bhuvneshwar has also got the backing of skipper Virat Kohli in the lead-up to the tournament.
"There is plenty of experience in this team, particularly in the seam attack. Bhuvneshwar Kumar in particular leads the way when it comes to experience and knowledge of how to deal with the big games.The inclusion of Shardul Thakur can also give extra strength to the fast bowlers that Virat has at his disposal," said Raina.
"We have been waiting for this T20 World Cup for a long time. It has been a difficult two years but I think we're about to see something special in the UAE and Oman."
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