File photo of Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav.© BCCI
Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan has urged the Ajit Agarkar-led national selection committee to pick five bowlers for the T20 World Cup, including two quality wrist spinners. In the spin department, the likes of Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravi Bishnoi and Yuzvendra Chahal are the notable contenders. While both Jadeja and Axar have been proven performers with the bat, Irfan feels that he would rather play an extra wrist spinner. During a recent interaction, Irfan snubbed Chahal in the wrist spinners race, and instead went with Kuldeep and Bishnoi.
“You need five good bowlers, that’s a must. What are your wicket-taking options? When you’re talking about Ravindra Jadeja at No. 8 and playing as a spin (all-rounder), I would rather have two wrist-spinners playing. I would rather have two proper wrist-spinners playing, (Ravi) Bishnoi and Kuldeep (Yadav), in my playing XI. If you look at Bishnoi’s numbers, you know, when he played, he was pretty good,” Irfan said during an interaction on Star Sports.
On the decision to snub Chahal, Pathan said: “Yes, we’re talking about Chahal right now because of the IPL performances but don’t forget the fielding part of it as well.”
Irfan also expressed his concern in the overall bowling department, saying that barring star pacer Jasprit Bumrah, there’s no other player who can be blindly trusted.
“There’s only one player who you can blindly say (certain for selection) is Bumrah. But apart from Bumrah, you need at least two fast bowlers who can be part of the regular XI. The biggest problem the Indian team has is the combination of fast bowling. It’s very important to fix that combination, so go towards experience,” he added.
The deadline for the squad submission is May 1 and it has been reported that India captain Rohit Sharma will meet the selectors in the coming days to discuss the squad.
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