The Indian cricket team’s T20 World Cup team selection is round the corner. By May 1, all sides need to announce their provisional squads. It means that the BCCI selectors will certainly be announcing the squad very soon. While some of the members are almost certain to be picked in the Rohit Sharma-led side, there are some challenges too. For long, India have been termed a T20 team that lacks innovation despite being the winners of the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007. Irfan Pathan was a member of that team and talked about the current squad’s “biggest challenge”.
Irfan Pathan, Commentator & Cricket Expert with IPL official TV Broadcaster, said on Star Sports Press Room Show: “See, as far as I’m concerned, Indian openers should be Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rohit Sharma, purely because of the right-hand and left-hand combination. Don’t forget Yashasvi Jaiswal’s international strike rate is 160 and you need that, you need that firepower. If Virat opens up the batting, what happens is that it will allow the combination of 11 to be in a certain way, which you want. If that happens, you might see Shivam Dube playing, if he’s there in the squad.
“You might see guys like Rinku Singh in the playing 11 as well. But if Virat bats at number three, that might not happen. So that’s a big challenge. The other thing, if Yashasvi Jaiswal is playing, what can happen as he’s actually been bowling regularly in the nets. So what you can do is you can actually play proper five bowlers and maybe have him as a sixth bowler, as an option to keep it. Otherwise, if you look at the batting order, no one bowls. No one bowls in top six and that’s the biggest challenge what we have as Indian cricket. And that’s what we need to consider that as well. So for me, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma and then Virat bats at number three.”
Tom Moody added that since the T20 World Cup is being played in the United States, which is hosting the marquee vent for the first time, and West Indies, experienced players are the need of the hour.
“This is one of the most complex selections that I think any country is going to have going into this World Cup, purely because it’s a sport for resources. The resources are endless, not so much on the fast bowling front, but on the spin front and the middle order and the top order. It’s unbelievable what’s available. And you could argue to the point that you can pick five different teams and they’ll be all as good as each other,” he said.
“The number one point I want to get across is you’ve got to have a left-right hand combination because you will find yourself in a situation, particularly if the surface does offer a little bit of turn or they’re slow, every team will line up with a left arm spinner to open the bowling. It’s an absolute no brainer and it’s a proven way to slow things down, if not take an early wicket. So you don’t want that, before even the coin toss where you’ve shown your opposition a potential weakness. So I definitely go with Rohit and Jaiswal at the top of the order. The discussion is, whether Virat is your number three? I think given the form that he’s shown recently and given his record in internationals and on the big stage is quite phenomenal, you’d have to seriously consider him as your number three. The other point that the four of the games are going to be in New York. We don’t know that. We’re guessing to what the conditions are going to be like. I would rather have an old head, an experienced campaigner to navigate what may or may not be out there in the middle against that sort of youthful, sort of brash approach to take on a situation when the surface and the conditions don’t allow you to do that. So I’d rather have that experienced old head to be able to navigate that challenge for me, so I get through into the tournament where I need to be playing in the finals.”
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