Saba Karim picks his preferred Indian squad for the T20 World Cup; leaves out Chahal, Shaw and Shami
Saba Karim has picked his preferred 15-member Indian squad for the T20 World Cup. Yuzvendra Chahal, Prithvi Shaw and Mohammed Shami were some of the most prominent players who failed to make the cut in Karim's preferred squad.
The T20 World Cup 2021 will be played in the UAE from 17th October to 14th November later this year. Selectors will certainly have a tough task choosing the squad, considering the plethora of options available at their disposal.
During a discussion on India News, Saba Karim opined that the full-strength squad chosen for the T20I series against England should be the basis of selection. He said:
"The team that was chosen by the selectors for the series against England, there were around 17 players there, I have started choosing my team from there. The players who performed well there and have not got an opportunity on the Sri Lanka tour because they were in England, you don't have any excuse to keep them out."
The former India wicket-keeper picked Washington Sundar as one of the spinners. Saba Karim reasoned:
"There should be consistency in selection. Because of that, I have kept Washington Sundar in my team. I feel that with the matches happening in the UAE, you will need an off-spinner there and he is kind of an all-rounder."
Sundar is currently injured and might not be seen in action for the remainder of IPL 2021. The selectors will certainly want to ensure that he is fully fit before including him in the Indian squad for the T20 World Cup.
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Saba Karim named Rahul Chahar and Bhuvneshwar Kumar as a couple of other bowlers in his chosen Indian squad. He explained:
"Along with him, I have kept Rahul Chahar because I feel he is an attacking bowler, a wicket-taking bowler, a match-winner. And I am still keeping Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the team because I feel his form is coming back and he will be very essential for the Indian team."
Shreyas Iyer won one of the middle-order berths in the former Indian selector's squad. Saba Karim elaborated:
"I have kept Shreyas Iyer because he was also in the team which had played against England and his performance was quite good there. He couldn't play the IPL this year but his performance in the IPL was quite good last year. So, there has to be a basis to keep him out of the team."
Saba Karim's Indian squad for the T20 World Cup: Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Washington Sundar, T Natarajan, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja, Rahul Chahar, Deepak Chahar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar