India’s T20 World Cup squad is out. And there is an overwhelming feeling that the BCCI Selection Committee selected a squad for the West Indies tour. The USA was not even in thought. Yes, India will take on Pakistan on June 9 on a fresh drop-in pitch with hardly a clue about how it would play. But BCCI’s grand plan is regarding the Super 8 stages in the West Indies.
That India have four spinners in the 15-member squad for T20 World Cup and just three specialist seamers, says a lot about the composition.
The West Indies gamble
India are in Group A alongside Pakistan, Ireland, the USA and Canada. However, barring Pakistan, Rohit Sharma & Co aren’t expecting any challenges from the rest. Hence, even if India lose to Pakistan, they will qualify for the Super 8 stage as second from Group A. The entirety of the Super 8 and knockouts will be held in the West Indies.
The pitches in the West Indies have been low and slow. While they have not offered great turn, the slow nature forced the Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee to pick players. Will the gamble pay off? Only time will tell.
“You can say the US is a stopover on the way to the Caribbean islands. We will play only four matches in the USA but Pakistan are the only strong team. It’s not about being overconfident but you have to understand that the squad is for the entire World Cup and not the Pakistan match alone. And thus the selectors have picked a squad that would suit the conditions,” a senior BCCI official explained the reasons to InsideSport.
India Squad for Zimbabwe
Shubman Gill (Captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Abhishek Sharma, Rinku Singh, Dhruv Jurel (WK), Riyan Parag, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Khaleel Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar, Tushar Deshpande, Sai Sudharsan, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Harshit Rana
Horses for courses
Shivam Dube being a great batter of spin made it to the squad ahead of Rinku Singh. And his slow-pace bowling could be an added advantage. As for Rinku, even though he is an excellent batter of spin, he is a little behind Dube.
Yuzvendra Chahal has only played 7 matches in the Caribbeans but he has been effective in those conditions. Kuldeep was always going to be the first choice as he has an extraordinary record in the West Indies. He has scalped 23 white-ball wickets in the West Indies.
One might ask if the idea was to pick players for West Indies, why not Shubman Gill? The fact is that Shubman might be an excellent batter for the conditions but selectors wanted to retain the Rohit Sharma-Yashasvi Jaiswal combo. In addition, Shubman did not do well in the Test and the T20Is in the West Indies. Jaiswal had a century and a fifty in three Test innings there.
Virat Kohli was always part of the squad despite the strike rate debate and so was Hardik Pandya. Sanju Samson made it to the team because he too can bat well on slow surfaces.
