In less than a week, India will start their 2022 T20 World Cup campaign against Australia in Melbourne. The edition presents the Rohit Sharma-led team yet another chance to end a nine-year-old drought for India to win an ICC title. Going into the mega-event, India have a plethora of options to choose from when it comes to right-handed batters. Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya and Dinesh Karthik may well form the top six. India have a lone specialist left-handed batter in Rishabh Pant, and whether he makes it to the XI or not is the big question.
While Sachin Tendulkar didn’t want to comment on team combinations, he does believe that a left-hander in the batting line-up gives the kind of variety every team craves. “Left handers without any doubt add in value and bowlers have to adjust, fielders have to adjust, and if they are able to rotate strike consistently, it is not something that the bowler enjoys,” Tendulkar told news agency PTI.
“Look, I wouldn’t go by just (top) three. You always play as a unit and one should see what works well. You can’t go by top two or top three. As a unit, what you have is important and then to figure out whom to send at what position, and also check what is the opposition’s strength.”
India squad for ICC T20 World Cup: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya, R. Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Shami.
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