T20 World Cup: Team India captain Virat Kohli, who did not bat in the warmup game against Australia, was active on-field during the match and was also seen bowling two overs in the match. Virat also helped India leg-spinner Rahul Chahar to take the wicket of Glenn Maxwell who was using the reverse sweep to good effect.
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In the 2nd warm-up match, India faced Australia, opting to bat first Australia got off to a bad start as David Warner and Mitchell Marsh were removed in the same over by R Ashwin in the 2nd over. Australia captain Aaron Finch was also sent back by Ravindra Jadeja in the 4th over. Australia were in deep trouble with Glenn Maxwell and Steve Smith in the middle. Smith was playing the anchor role while Maxwell was playing aggressively.
Just when it looked like Glenn Maxwell will play a gem of an innings as he was looking like he was still playing in IPL. His RCB captain Virat Kohli stepped in to help Rahul Chahar. Virat suggested Rahul bowl stump to stump rather than bowling outside off as Glenn was using sweep shot against him. Rahul did the same and clean bowled Maxwell on 37 runs.
Rahul is however unlikely to feature in the game against Pakistan as Varun Chakravarthy or R Ashwin will play alongside Ravindra Jadeja as 2nd spinner. Rahul has picked just two wickets in two warmup matches. Selectors’ decision to pick Rahul ahead of Yuzvendra Chahla was also criticised by many cricket experts.
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Kohli during a Captain’s Call organised by the ICC ahead of the upcoming Men’s T20 World Cup said that, “It was a challenging call but we decided to back Rahul Chahar for a reason. He has bowled amazingly well over the last couple of years in the IPL. A guy who bowls with pace, he did really well in Sri Lanka and against England at home as well, he was someone who bowled those difficult overs.”
“We believe going on in this tournament, the wickets are going to get slower and slower, so guys who bowl with pace will be able to trouble the batters as compared to those who give it air. Rahul definitely has those strengths naturally as a leg-spinner. He is someone who always attacks the wickets, that is the factor that tilted the thing in favour of him. Picking a World Cup is always tricky and you cannot always have everyone in that squad,” he added.
India’s squad for ICC T20 World Cup
Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Rahul Chahar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Shami
Stand-by players: Shreyas Iyer, Deepak Chahar, Axar Patel
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