ICC T20 World Cup 2021 Team India Player List: MS Dhoni to be Team Mentor; R Ashwin earns T20I comeback after 4 years

Team India Player List: India’s 15-member squad comprises of six batsmen, three all-rounders, three spinners and three fast bowlers.

The senior men’s selection committee has announced a strong 15-member squad for the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup 2021 scheduled to be played between October 17 – November 14 in the UAE and Oman.

In what will be captain Virat Kohli’s first T20 World Cup, the 32-year old player will lead a side comprising of established names in the shortest format such as Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah.

Ashwin, whose last T20I dates back to 2017, has been handed with a surprise comeback. Most recently in the news for warming the bench in the ongoing Test series against England, it will be interesting to see how the team management manages Ashwin in the world event.

India, who have named a squad with aplenty spin-bowling options, have also named players such as Axar Patel, Rahul Chahr and Varun Chakravarthy.

Much like this trio, batsman Suryakumar Yadav and wicket-keeper batsman Ishan Kishan is another players who has managed to retain his place despite having made his T20I debut in the last year or so. Readers must note that Kishan has earned his place by pinning down the likes of Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer and Sanju Samson.

ICC T20 World Cup Team India Player List

In what is a significant change in the spin-bowling department, tried and tested faces namely Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav and Washington Sundar have all been dropped. There’s a strong possibility that Sundar might be unavailable for the World Cup due to an injury which has already ruled him out of the second phase of Indian Premier League 2021.

Another high-profile inclusion is that of fast bowler Mohammed Shami, who had last played a T20I during the tour of Australia last year. Shami will be part of a three-member pace attack also comprising of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah.

Indian squad for T20 World Cup 2021 – Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma (vc), KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Rahul Chahar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohd Shami.

Standby player meaning in cricket

It is worth mentioning that the selection committee has also named one batsman and two fast bowlers as part of three standby players for the T20 World Cup. Fans must note that standby players will travel with the squad but won’t be part of it until someone from the original squad gets injured and a standby player is named as his official replacement.

Given the times we are living in, each team has announced at least three standby players who will come handy especially if a member of the original squad tests positive for COVID-19.

Standby players – Shreyas Iyer, Shardul Thakur and Deepak Chahar.

Twitter reactions on Indian team squad for T20 World Cup:

Placed in Group 2 alongside Pakistan, New Zealand and Afghanistan, India will kick-start their campaign with their first match against arch-rivals Pakistan on October 24 in Dubai.