The Indian team for the upcoming T-20 World Cup cricket tournament to be held in America and the West Indies will be decided by the end of this month. IPL performances are usually a big factor in selecting a team for the T-20 World Cup, but that wouldn’t be the case for some of the young talent.
The International Cricket Council has set May 1 as the date to announce the provisional 15-man squad. Chairman of the selection committee Ajit Agarkar and his colleagues will have the challenge of picking a good team.
A Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) source told PTI, “There will be no experiment or selection based on on-field performance. Players who play for India and consistently perform well in T20 Internationals and IPL will be selected.”
If the above quote has any credibility, many young and talented names could miss out on being part of the Indian team. The likes of Yashaswi Jaiswal. Shubman Gill, Rinku Singh and Shivam Dube are all deserving of making the 15-man list. However, if the selectors need balance in the team, they will have to disappoint at least two of the aforementioned players.
Who will be the wicket-keeper for the Indian cricket team ?
The Indian cricket team was led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni for over a decade and with him in the team, not a lot of wicket-keepers were given the chance to play for the country. Since his retirement, many young and experienced players have had the chance to cement their spots, but not one of them has managed to do it. Going into the World Cup, Ishan Kishan, Sanju Samson and KL Rahul seemed like the obvious choices.
But recent performances from Dinesh Karthik, Jitesh Sharma and Dhruv Jurel have posed another tough challenge for the selectors.
The Indian team has a headache every side would love to have
The spot for a spinner remains to be a tough call and could be a discourse among fans. Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravi Bishnoi will compete for the ‘reserve’ spinner spot. Axar’s all-round ability will certainly give him the edge, but the selectors cannot rule out Chahal. He is yet to play a T-20 World Cup in his nine-year international career, but he is far ahead of the other two in terms of bowling skills. But repeated omissions from important squads have raised major questions over his selection for the tournament in June.
Riyan Parag, Mayank Yadav, Abhishek Sharma and Harshit Rana have all performed well. But it is understood that the selection committee will follow the process of getting them comfortable in bilateral cricket instead of testing them in a high-level tournament like the World T20.
There will be two white ball series against Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka, in which these young players will enter the field to make their debut for India. Nitish Reddy is a bowling all-rounder who was part of the ‘India Emerging’ team that toured Sri Lanka last year. He can also follow this path. It will be interesting to see if BCCI takes players like Mayank Yadav, Harshit Rana and Akash Madhwal as net bowlers as it will give them a good opportunity.
20 players that could make the World Cup team are:
Specialist Batsmen (6): Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rinku Singh
All-rounders (4): Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shivam Dubey, Akshar Patel.
Specialist spinners (3): Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi.
Wicketkeeper Batsmen (3): Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul and Sanju Samson.
Fast bowlers (4): Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Siraj, Arshdeep Singh and Avesh Khan
