The return of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli to the T20 team after almost a year means that the BCCI selectors want to give importance to experience in the next T20 World Cup. This is the last T20 series before the ICC World Cup to be held in West Indies and USA in June. It is being told that chief selector Ajit Agarkar had specially gone to Cape Town. This decision has been taken after consulting senior players and team management.
Rohit Sharma has been made the captain of the team. Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav, who led the team in his absence, are injured and are not available for selection. Suryakumar suffered an ankle injury while fielding in the third and final ODI match played in Johannesburg. He recently had ankle surgery and is expected to return to training in a few months.
Hardik was injured during the league match against Bangladesh in Pune during the ODI World Cup in November. After that he has not been able to return. Both Hardik and Suryakumar are expected to return from IPL in March.
In such a situation, the chances of Rohit Sharma leading India in the T20 World Cup have increased significantly. Ambitious Hardik Pandya will have to wait for captaincy in the World Cup. However, for the IPL, Pandya has recently been made the captain of Mumbai Indians in place of Rohit Sharma.
The biggest surprise is that there is no place for KL Rahul in the 15-member team even though he is in tremendous form in both ODI and Test. KL Rahul had expressed his intention to return to T20 after the successful tour of South Africa. In South Africa, he scored a Test century and led the ODI team to series victory under his captaincy.
Like KL Rahul, Rohit and Kohli have not played an international T20 match since the semi-final defeat by England in the T20 World Cup in November 2022. Both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli had decided to give priority to Test cricket and ODI ahead of the World Test Championship final and the ODI World Cup in 2023. Recently both of them had expressed their desire to play in the T20 World Cup.
Hardik Pandya has captained India in most of the matches since the 2022 T20 World Cup. After his injury, Suryakumar Yadav was made the captain.
Suryakumar led India in a five-match T20 series against Australia at home and three T20 matches in South Africa in December, but he was also ruled out of the team due to an ankle injury in South Africa. Wicket keeper-batsman Ishan Kishan is not included in the team. It is being said that after feeling mentally exhausted, Ishaan is trying to 'reboot' himself. For this he has taken a break. Ishaan also withdrew from the two-Test series in South Africa.
In the absence of Ishan Kishan, Sanju Samson has got a chance to return to the T20 team. He last played a T20 match in August last year. Despite his strong performance in the IPL, Samson has not been successful in achieving consistency in his international T20 career.
Samson has scored 374 runs in 24 matches at an average of 19.68. In August 2023, Samson played five T20 matches against the West Indies and two against Ireland, but could only score 73 runs in five innings.
But after scoring a century in the decisive ODI against South Africa played in Pearl, the selectors could not ignore him. Samson played a brilliant inning of 108 runs and played an important role in helping India win by 78 runs. Sanju has not got a chance in ICC competitions. It is expected that the Kerala star will take advantage of the opportunity he got in the series against Afghanistan.
Second in Sanju Samson's team is Jitesh Sharma, who was included in the T20 series team against both Australia and South Africa. Shivam Joy has been in Mumbai stock to complement his democratic performances for Chennai Super Kings in the IPL. Shivam had scored 363 runs in 12 IPL matches at a strike rate of 157.
Shivam Jesus batted aggressively in the middle overs. The opponents, especially the spinners, performed brilliantly. 19 of his 30 assists came against the Stars. Juice had given his credit to Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. He is also part of the team that won the gold medal at the Asian Games in Hangzhou in October last year.
some useful cameo innings for Mumbai in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy while batting in classy order. However, no one was able to do wonders in the pros. Keeping in mind the 'work load' before the upcoming five-Test series at England's home ground, star players and Mohammad Siraj have been rested.
Siraj and the superstar played an important role in the victory against South Africa in the Cape Town Test. Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan and Mukesh Kumar will take over the reins of Tej Friends in his absence.
Among the spinners are Akshar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar and Ravi Bishnoi. Yuzvendra Chahal and Bhuvneshwar Kumar have not been given another chance. So should it be assumed that the T20 career of these two players is over?
Chahal remained a consistent fixture in India's T20 squad through 2021, and established himself as a reliable spin bowler. Took wickets at important stages of the game. Till now Chahal is India's highest wicket taker in T20 but Chahal has not been selected in the team for the last one year. Ravi Bishnoi's continued success in T20 is closing doors for Chahal. Bishnoi will definitely play in the T20 World Cup and Chahal is certain to be out.
Deepak Chahar was included in the T20 series with South Africa but had to withdraw due to personal reasons. This time he has not got a place in the team. Shreyas Iyer and Ravindra Jadeja are also not in the team, whereas Jadeja was the vice-captain of the team in the T20 series with South Africa. Jadeja could not play in the first Test against South Africa due to stiff neck. It is believed that the selectors are not considering Shreyas Iyer's name for the World Cup. Fast rising finisher Rinku Singh has been retained in the team.
The first match of the series between India and Afghanistan will be held on January 11 in Mohali. Then the second match between the two teams will be played in Indore on 14 January. M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru will host the final match of the T20 series.
Also Read: Why were Surya-Pandya out of the T20 series against Afghanistan?
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