Which cricketers will India pick for their T20 World Cup opener against Ireland this coming Wednesday? The question is being widely asked in the run-up to Group A’s match at Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, New York.
Hints of the combination that head coach Rahul Dravid and captain Rohit Sharma are looking at were dropped during India’s only warm-up match against Bangladesh, which India won comprehensively by 60 runs.
In total, a dozen out of fifteen Indian players took part in a training game where Virat Kohli and Yashasvi Jaiswal did not feature. After his recent short personal break following the close of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Kohli joined the team late in New York.
Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar also joined experts predicting the XIs for India as he released his team sheet that had a few surprises including Jaiswal batting at No.3 and Arshdeep Singh left arm pace bowler missing from the line-up.
On Star Sports’ official broacaster website, Gavaskar said: “I don’t really like selecting teams because you cannot satisfy everybody. There will always be somebody’s favourite player who is not being picked. Here’s my effort to try and pick the eleven for the game against Ireland.”
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“Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj,” Gavaskar listed out his preferred line-up for India XI.
However many experts have left him out of their squads but it seems he has been duly included at No 3 by Gavsakar. Neither did he say why he didn’t select certain players nor justify those he left out. However, it is a widely held view among pundits that Kohli will open the batting with captain Rohit.
Also, leaving out a left-arm pacer, Arshdeep, from the eleven was a surprising decision. In three overs he bowled against Bangladesh in warm-up game and took 2 for 12 which put him ahead of all Indian bowlers.
Other than India and Ireland, Group A includes Pakistan as well as co-hosts USA and Canada.
India’s campaign opener sees them face-off against Ireland before the blockbuster clash with Pakistan on June 9th at New York.
