Chahal to Dhawan: Players who can still make it to India’s T20 WC squad

India’s T20 World Cup squad, to be led by Virat Kohli, was announced in August. In surprising decisions the selection committee dropped the country’s most successful spinner in the format Yuzvendra Chahal and star opener Shikhar Dhawan. The likes of Shreyas Iyer and Shardul Thakur were named as stand-by players. However, most of these have had an impressive IPL UAE-leg so far. And as per the rules, the cricketing boards can alter their squads till October 10. Hence, riding on their performances in the UAE, some players can still make it to the T20 World Cup. 

India’s 15-man squad:

Virat Kohli (Captain), 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.

Standby players – Shreyas Iyer, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar.

Also read: IPL 2021: Sunrisers Hyderabad look to play party-poopers vs high-flying Chennai Super Kings

Here are players who make a strong case for their selection for the marquee tournament:

Yuzvendra Chahal:

In the three matches Yuzvendra Chahal has played in the UAE-leg, the leg-spinner has picked seven wickets and recorded an economy rate of less than 6 rpo. Against Rajasthan Royals on Wednesday, Chahal was named player of the match for dismissing two batsmen at 4.50 rpo. He was brought after the 10th over when RR were dominating the game, but Chahal with his clever bowling choked the run flow and delivered crucial blows. 

Talking about Chahal’s non-selection for the World Cup, Indian batting legend Virender Sehwag had said, “It’s not that Chahal was doing something different in these last two matches. He has been doing the same as he does all the time. He did the exact same thing in Sri Lanka. He knows how to bowl in this format.”

Also read: Mumbai Indians’ Kieron Pollard first to take 300 wickets, score 10k runs in T20s

“I could never understand why he was not selected. Some sort of a reason should be given, whether he is out of form or if there seems to be someone who is better and bowls extraordinarily. It is not like we saw Rahul Chahar bowled really well during the Sri Lanka tour. I just couldn’t understand why Chahal was dropped and the way he is bowling, he can walk straight into any team in the world,” Sehwag added on Cricbuzz live.

Shikhar Dhawan:

The current orange cap holder in the IPL was not selected in the T20 World Cup squad. Although he has not been at his very best in the UAE-leg, Dhawan’s 454 runs in 11 games at an average of more than 45 cannot be ignored. 

Harshal Patel:

RCB’s Harshal Patel registered a hattrick against the Mumbai Indians. His wickets included big-hitting duo of Kieron Pollard and Hardik Pandya. Patel, the current purple cap holder with 26 wickets, is eight clear of the second placed Avesh Khan (18). He followed his impressive show against Mumbai with a three-wicket haul against the Rajasthan Royals. Not to forget, Harshal has scored 837 runs, striking at 149.19, and hit three half-centuries in the format too. 

The T20 World Cup will take place in UAE and Oman. The tournament is scheduled to begin on October 17 with the qualifying rounds. India kick off their T20 World Cup campaign against Pakistan on October 24.