The BCCI declared the 15-man Indian squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup, set to happen next month, yesterday. For the first time in T20 World Cup history, the event will take place in the United Arab Emirates and Oman. Initially, India was set to host the competition, but keeping the COVID-19 situation in mind, the tournament was moved to the United Arab Emirates and Oman.
BCCI announced the squad for the mega event in the UAE. The squad features Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohd Shami, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja and Rahul Chahar. There are three reserve players as well, namely Shardul Thakur, Shreyas Iyer and Deepak Chahar. There were a few players who were unlucky to miss out. Here’s a list of those three cricketers:
1. Yuzvendra Chahal
Indian leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal performed well in the 2020 edition of the Indian Premier League that happened in the United Arab Emirates. He played a pivotal in the journey of the Royal Challengers Bangalore team to the playoffs. Chahal has been the most successful spinner for India in T20Is over the last few years, but the team management surprisingly ignored him for the ICC T20 World Cup.
2. Shikhar Dhawan
Shikhar Dhawan is popular for his exceptional batting performances in ICC tournaments. The left-handed batsman has played many match-winning knocks for the Indian cricket team in the ICC events. Also, when one looks at the list of the Orange Cap leaderboard of IPL 2021, they find Shikhar Dhawan at the number one position. Thus, it was surprising to see Dhawan being ignored for the ICC T20 World Cup.
3. Mohammed Siraj could have been a good pick for ICC T20 World Cup 2021
If there is one player who has shown stark improvement in his game, it is pace bowler Mohammed Siraj. The right-arm pace bowler has transformed from a bowler who had an expensive economy rate to a match-winner who can keep a check on the runs-flow. Siraj has performed exceptionally well for RCB in IPL 2021 so far. Hence, he was expected to be in the Final 15.
