The Indian selection committee led by Chetan Sharma has preferred youngster, Rahul Chahar over the experienced Yuvendra Chahal, who has bagged 21 wickets in the last edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), held in the UAE. It came as a surprise for a lot of pundits Chahal, who has been a regular in India’s limited-overs squads until now was ignored and Chahar was selected.
Sharing light on the omission of Chahal, chief selector Chetan Sharma said: “Yuzvendra Chahal’s name was discussed. But we picked Rahul Chahar over Yuzi as we wanted someone who bowls fast and gets pace off the pitch. He also gets the ball to grip through the surface.”
Former India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh was a frontrunner in raising questions on the omission of Yuzvendra Chahal from the T20 World Cup.
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Harbhajan had tweeted, “Congratulations to everyone who got selected in team India for T20 World Cup. Feel bad for Shikhar Dhawan and Yuzvendra Chahal, they are consistent in this shorter format. Yuzi took 21 wickets in the last IPL held in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Sharjah. He is all time highest wicket taker for India in T20.”
Congratulations everyone who got selected in team India for T20 World Cup.feel bad for @SDhawan25 and @yuzi_chahal they r consistent in this shorter format.Yuzi took 21 wickets in last IPL in dubai/Abudhabi/Sarjan He is all time highest wicket taker for INDIA in T20 #T20WorldCup
— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) September 8, 2021
Senior off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has made a comeback to India’s limited-overs squad after four years. He last played white-ball cricket for India in 2017 during the West India tour before being sidelined from the ODIs and the T20Is.
Talking about Ashwin’s selection, Chetan Sharma said, “Ashwin is an asset. He performed well in the IPL and we needed a player of his experience. We need an off-spinner with Washington (Sundar) injured. Ashwin is the only off-spinner in the squad. Varun is a mystery spinner who is a surprise package for the world.”
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The T20 World Cup is scheduled to be on October 17 in the UAE and Oman. India will open their T20 World Cup campaign on October 24 by taking on arch-rivals Pakistan.
Squad: Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), 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, Mohammed Shami
Standby players: Shreyas Iyer, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar
