Ashwin, Suryakumar Yadav named in India squad for T20 World Cup 2021; Shreyas Iyer and Shardul Thakur in stand-by list

09/08/2021

The BCCI on Wednesday announced India's squad for upcoming T20 World Cup which will be played in UAE and Oman from October 17. Ravichandran Ashwin has been recalled to the white-ball format after 4 years, while middle-order batsman Shreyas Iyer and pacer Shardul Thakur have been kept on standby.

Ravichandan Ashwin has been recalled for the ICC T20 World Cup which will be played in UAE and Oman from October 17. Shreyas Iyer, Shardul Thakur and Deepak Chahar have been named as the 3 standy players. The likes of Shikhar Dhawan, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Krunal Pandya, Mohammed Siraj and T Natarajan have failed to make the cut.

TEAM - 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.#TeamIndia
— BCCI (@BCCI) September 8, 2021

Also, former India captain MS Dhoni is set to mentor the team during the marquee event. Notably, India won the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007 under the captaincy of MS Dhoni.

"Former India Captain @msdhoni to mentor the team for the T20 World Cup" - Honorary Secretary @JayShah #TeamIndia
— BCCI (@BCCI) September 8, 2021

Ravichandran Ashwin last played a T20I match for India in July 2017 against West Indies in Kingston. In fact, his last ODI appearance also came on the same tour. The premier off-spinner has been benched in first four matches of the ongoing 5-Test series in England. However, he has been the key bowler for Delhi Capitals in the IPL. The 34-year-old had scalped 13 wickets in 15 matches in the IPL 2020.

Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan had terrific starts to their T20I careers in the home series against England and their selection in the squad was almost confirmed. Mumbai batsman Surykumar has registered scores of 57, 32 and 50 in his first three outings while maintaining an impressive strike-rate of 169.51. On the other hand, Jharkhand captain Ishan Kishan 80 runs at a strike rate of 145.45 in his 3-match-old career in the shortest format.

Moving on, Deepak Chahar, has been one of India’s consistent performers in recent years, with 20 wickets from 14 outings at 19.3, including a career-best of 6/7 - the best ever returns for India in the format. On India’s recent trip to Sri Lanka, he showcased his batting talent too, much like he has done in the past for CSK, as he scored a well-crafted 69* to get India over the line in the second ODI.

Whereas, Shardul Thakur was the leading wicket-taker in the ODI and T20I series against England earlier this year, with 15 wickets across the two series, and has recently shown his all-round exploits in England.

Both the CSK pacer have been kept in the standby list alongside Shreyas Iyer, who suffered a shoulder injury during the home ODI series against England, could not feature in the first half of IPL and India's white-ball tour of Sri Lanka.

Further, Rahul Chahar had also made a strong bid for a spot after taking four wickets in the T20Is he played in Sri Lanka in July. In his debut ODI on the tour, the 22-year-old picked three wickets after spending 54 runs in 10 overs.

India will begin their campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan on October 24 in Dubai. The star-studded side will also face Afghanistan and New Zealand along with 2 qualifiers in Group 2. Top four teams from each group of the Super 12 will progress to the knockout stages.