India’s talent pool is enviable and the immense depth makes us wonder if we could actually have three different Indian T20I line-ups…and then some reserves.
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The extended 22-man World Cup squad could see most of these names with the actual talent pool stretching well beyond that. In an exercise we did a few weeks back, Wisden writers had some interesting XIs picked out for India for the T20 World Cup.
Here are three teams India could line up with.
India main team
Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli (captain), Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah
The first-choice XI has a lot of certain picks in the team. A couple of contentious picks could be Shardul Thakur and Shikhar Dhawan, with Mohammed Shami and KL Rahul truly capable of stepping up in place of either. Yuzvendra Chahal’s recent form hasn’t been quite up to the mark and it could see him being pushed to the India B team with several spin options in the reserve to jump in to the main team.
India B
KL Rahul, Prithvi Shaw, Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan (wk), Sanju Samson (captain), Krunal Pandya, Washington Sundar, Deepak Chahar, Mohammed Shami, Rahul Chahar, Avesh Khan
There are top-order options in plenty in the talent pool and picking the top four for even a second-string side is no easy task. Rahul is the first-choice opener in this side with Prithvi Shaw edging ahead of others after a good IPL season. Sanju Samson has good hitting range for a middle-order batsman and comes in at No.5 in this line-up.
Washington Sundar misses out on the main team with Ravindra Jadeja’s superior batting credentials being the difference. Sundar and Rahul Chahar, who has threatened Chahal’s place in the recent past, make up the spin attack. Avesh Khan impressed in the IPL 2021 season with his death bowling and is the third cog of the pace attack spearheaded by Deepak Chahar and Shami.
India C
Devdutt Padikkal, Mayank Agarwal, Manish Pandey, Deepak Hooda, Abdul Samad, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Axar Patel, R Ashwin (captain), Mohammed Siraj, T Natarajan, Varun Chakravarthy
Devdutt Padikkal and Mayank Agarwal form the opening pair with Ruturaj Gaikwad, Nitish Rana, Shubman Gill being other options from outside the three squads. Manish Pandey will be the anchor at No.3. Deepak Hooda and Abdul Samad form a dynamic middle-order and are followed by Dinesh Karthik, an able late-order batsman.
Axar Patel and R Ashwin make up the spin attack that also has Varun Chakravarthy as the mystery spinner. There are a few other options including Kuldeep Yadav and Ravi Bishnoi outside the three squads. Mohammed Siraj and T Natarajan will form the pace attack.
Reserve pool (yes, there’s more)
Ambati Rayudu, Nitish Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Shubman Gill, Navdeep Saini, Ravi Bishnoi, Vijay Shankar, Shivam Dube, Prasidh Krishna, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Rahul Tewatia, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Riyan Parag, Jaydev Unadkat, Chetan Sakariya, Kartik Tyagi
And that’s a half-century of players!
