India’s squad list for T20 World Cup 2021: Analysis, Strengths, Weaknesses & Prediction

Virat Kohli is yet to taste an ICC trophy and he has had 3 opportunities so far and India were so close yet so far in those tourneys. India lost to Pakistan in the final of the champions trophy in 2017, lost to New Zealand in the semi final of 2019 world cup and once again lost to New Zealand in the WTC final.

The upcoming WT20 is yet another opportunity for Indian team to pocket an ICC trophy which they last won in 2013 under India’s best limited overs skipper in MS Dhoni. The BCCI announced 15 men squad for the world cup

India’s squad for WT20

Virat Kohli (Capt), 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.

TEAM – Virat Kohli (Capt), 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.#TeamIndia

— BCCI (@BCCI) September 8, 2021

Strengths

• India decided to open with Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma in their last T20I against England but it’s a given that KL Rahul will walk into the playing 11 in the current scenario. It would be wise if India decide to play KL Rahul at 3 and persist with the aforementioned opening combination. It will allow them to maximize the resources as Virat Kohli is more comfortable opening the innings while KL Rahul can handle spinners in middle overs.
• India have 2 excellent players of spin bowling in their middle order in the form of KL Rahul (provided they play KL Rahul at #3) and Surya Kumar Yadav. Any team would find it difficult to restrict these 2 batsmen with spinners in middle overs.
• India will be trusting their experienced bowling duo in Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. These 2 are all phase bowlers and not all teams are blessed with such canny bowlers under their ranks.
• Assuming Hardik Pandya to contribute with the ball, India will have 2 genuine all rounders in Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja which will add overall balance to their playing 11.

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Weaknesses

• The form of Hardik Pandya will be a worry for India if the all rounder doesn’t hit his form in the 2^nd leg of IPL. He was poor in the first leg of IPL and thereafter in the Sri Lankan series. He is also prone to injuries and him walking directly into the world cup after IPL might not serve well for India.
• The bowling form of Yuzvendra Chahal who is the leading spinner in the country has been on the decline for such a long period now. His lack of ability to bowl faster through the air is hurting him big time.
• India should pick the best players for the respective roles instead of going for batting depth.
• India is a team that believes in not going big in the powerplay but consolidating in the initial overs to go all guns at the death. This is a method which a team with good batters till #7 like India should completely overlook. The openers are there for a reason to exploit the field restrictions and they should do that instead of worrying about the slog overs as there are batters who are there in the team to do that job.

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Prediction

India need to assign proper roles to every player in the team and the form of Hardik Pandya will decide the fate of Indian team in the knockout stages. With the kind of talent they have at their disposal, India are one of the top 2 teams to lift the world cup for the 2^nd time after 2007.

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