India’s former chief selector MSK Prasad revealed his squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup 2021 in the UAE and Oman. His squad features Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw as openers for the tournament that will be played from October 17 to November 14 in the UAE and Oman.
Currently, Rohit Sharma is the only certain opener for the T20 World Cup while the tussle for his partner is going on in between Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul and Prithvi Shaw. Prasad feels it should be Dhawan and Shaw as openers while KL Rahul will be better suited in the middle-order.
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“I still feel that Shikhar Dhawan should be there. It should be Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, and Prithvi Shaw as the three openers. And the middle-order will be Virat, SKY, KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant. KL is going to play in the middle-order only because there’s Rohit and Shikhar, and even Prithvi Shaw also is in outstanding form. And again, it’s in Asian conditions, so I have a feeling he might be there,” said MSK Prasad in a chat with Sportskeeda.
He further mentioned India’s middle-order is settled with Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav and KL Rahul with either Ishan Kishan and Sanju Samson will be picked in the squad. He also mentioned how Shreyas Iyer’s shoulder injury came at the wrong time when he cemented his place in the team.
“It looks like that, see our middle order is full now. There’s Suryakumar Yadav, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, and if at all you are looking at another batsman, it’ll be between Ishan Kishan and Sanju Samson. But with both KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant keeping wickets, I doubt whether they’ll go for a third one.
“But I feel pity for Shreyas because he was actually picking up really well, he had slowly established his place in the 11 also. The injury happened at a very wrong time,” said the former Indian selector.
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Talking about the spin bowling department, Prasad believes India won’t be taking five spinners with them. Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja and Krunal Pandya are straightforward picks with either Varun Chakravarthy and Yuzvendra Chahal will be picked as the fourth one depending on their performance in the UAE-leg of IPL 2021.
“I don’t think they will take five spinners. Washington Sundar is a T20 specialist bowler, no two ways about it, and Jadeja will anyway be in the squad. Then, Krunal Pandya – he can bat, he can bowl, he can field. Apart from these three, whether you’ll go with a Chahal or an ex-factor in Varun Chakravarthy depends on how they perform in the IPL because that will also take place in the UAE,” said MSK Prasad.
Interestingly, he left Deepak Chahar from the pace bowling department while also not considering T Natarajan.
“Regarding Nattu, you already have enough pace bowlers, so I doubt whether he would have found a place. Bumrah, Bhuvi, Shami, and Mohammed Siraj are doing so well, Hardik Pandya is the backup bowler, so where is the space,” concluded MSK Prasad.
MSK Prasad’s Indian squad for 2021 T20 World Cup: Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Prithvi Shaw, Virat Kohli(C), Suryakumar Yadav, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Ishan Kishan/Sanju Samson, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Krunal Pandya, Varun Chakravarthy/Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
