Sunil Gavaskar picks 15 players for India's T20 World Cup squad, leaves out Dhawan and Iyer
Sunil Gavaskar has made his final picks for the T20 World Cup 2021 India Squad. The official 15-man squad is likely to be announced on Wednesday (September 8), just over a month ahead of the UAE-based tournament that will start on October 17.
Announced during an interaction with Sports Tak, Sunil Gavaskar's squad gave a surprise upfront as he left out one of the highest scorers in the last two IPLs, Shikhar Dhawan. He picked skipper Virat Kohli as Rohit Sharma's opening partner instead, with KL Rahul acting as a backup opener and reserve wicketkeeper.
Suryakumar Yadav, who made his ODI and T20I debuts earlier this year, was picked as the No. 3 batsman. Sunil Gavaskar then chose two other Mumbai Indians players to support Yadav in the middle-order - Hardik Pandya and Krunal Pandya.
Explaining the selection of the elder of the two brothers, Gavaskar said:
"He's an all-rounder, a very experienced player, has performed very well in the IPL for the past many years so he surely deserves a place. He's left-handed, which is an advantage as well."
Another notable exclusion was that of Shreyas Iyer. A dynamic middle-order batsman, Iyer has been out of international cricket since March due to injury. But before that, he was a crucial member of the team, having scored 550 runs from 28 T20Is.
Washington Sundar (subject to fitness) and Ravindra Jadeja made the squad as the other two all-rounders. Sundar recently suffered a fracture in his finger which has ruled him out of the IPL 2021's UAE leg.
Sunil Gavaskar then selected six specialist bowlers - Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar and Shardul Thakur as the pacers and Yuzvendra Chahar as the lone spinner. Rahul Chahar and Kuldeep Yadav were conspicuous by their absence here.
Check out the full T20 World Cup 2021 Teams and Squads here.
Sunil Gavaskar's 15-man Indian squad for T20 World Cup
Full squad: Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli (c), KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar (subject to fitness), Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur and Yuzvendra Chahal.