Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly has picked his squad for the upcoming ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023. Ganguly has opted for a strong batting lineup, placing Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, and Ishan Kishan at the top order. He has also included experienced players like Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, and Suryakumar Yadav in the middle order. Notably, KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer, both of whom were recovering from injuries, were part of the 15-player squad, although their readiness to play in matches was still to be confirmed.
Ganguly chose Kishan and Rahul as potential wicketkeepers, and he appointed Hardik Pandya as the vice-captain. The options for spin all-rounders included Ravindra Jadeja and Akshar Patel, while Kuldeep Yadav was selected as the only specialist spinner in the squad. Notably, Tilak Varma and Yuzvendra Chahal were not included in the team initially, but Ganguly mentioned that if any players faced fitness issues, they would be his primary replacements.
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“If one of the middle-order batters gets unfit, then Tilak Varma,” Ganguly told Star Sports as reported by ANI. “If one of the fast bowlers gets unfit; then Prasidh Krishna; if one of the spinners gets unfit, then Yuzvendra Chahal. I’ll always pick Chahal. I’ll always pick wrist spinners, I don’t know what the selectors think but I’d always pick wrist spinners. You need youth, a good team is a mixture of youth and experience. So you need the flamboyance of youth, the fearlessness of youth along with the season campaigners like Rohit, Virat, Rahul, Jadeja and Pandya. You need somebody to just go fearless,” Ganguly said.
The World Cup is set to begin on Thursday, October 5th, with a match between England and New Zealand, the finalists from the 2019 tournament. The opening match will take place at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The tournament will conclude with the final match also held at the same venue on Sunday, November 19th.
Sourav Ganguly’s Indian squad for World Cup: Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Hardik Pandya (VC), Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur
