Former Indian wicketkeeper-batsman and two- time World cup winning captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni will mentor the India T20 World Cup squad, the Board of Cricket Control in India’s (BCCI) honourary secretary Jay Shah announced on Wednesday.

The BCCI on Wednesday announced the T20 squad which includes  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, Mohammad Shami.

India have been placed in Group 2 alongside Pakistan, New Zealand and Afghanistan in the T20 World Cup fixtures. India will start their campaign in a clash with Pakistan on October 24.

The team will play three of their four matches at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. One match will be played against Afghanistan in Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Zayed Stadium.

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MS Dhoni holds the distinction of being the only cricket captain to win all International Cricket Council (ICC) trophies. He led India to victory in the 2007 ICC World Twenty20, the 2010 and 2016 Asia Cups, the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup and the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy.

The T20 World Cup 2021 will be the first time India will take field in the tournament without Dhoni, and under a different captain.

Under his captaincy, India won a nail-biting final in the inaugural T20 World in 2007. Dhoni, who announced retirement from international cricket in August 2020, will lead the Chennai Super Kings in the UAE leg of Indian Premier League(IPL) 2021.

He scored 1617 runs in 98 T20 International matches at an average of 37.6 and a strike rate of 126.13, ending his career with a 23-ball 40 against Australia at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium. 

Dhoni is the only captain to win a record 20 matches in T20 world cups.