India T20 WC Squad: BCCI Selection Meeting LIVE: With Ravindra Jadeja ruled out, the All India selection committee have named both Deepak Hooda and Axar Patel in the T20 World Cup squad. While Axar Patel comes in as a like for like replacement, India floated the idea of Deepak Hooda at No.7 in the Asia Cup adding more options to captain Rohit Sharma’s arsenal. Follow T20 World Cup LIVE Updates on InsideSport.IN.
While Axar Patel offers four overs of spin and some hitting lower down the order, Deepak Hooda dovetails as a specialist batsman with the ability to bowl a couple of overs in the game.
India T20 WC squad: Deepak Hooda and Axar Patel both named in India’s T20 World Cup squad as Ravindra Jadeja replacement – Check out
India T20 WC Squad: Deepak Hooda, Axar Patel named as Ravindra Jadeja replacement?
- Despite performing well, Axar Patel has largely been overlooked in T20Is.
- He is a left-arm spinner and has played some match-winning knocks with the bat to establish himself as an all-rounder.
- However, Axar has been inconsistent with both bat and the ball and that is the selectors’ dilemma.
- In the last 12 months, Axar has scored averaged just 18.00 with the bat, striking the ball at 144.00 strike rate.
- In terms of bowling, he has only bagged 12 wickets in 14 matches at an economy rate of 7.68.
- The other problem with Axar is that he is not a top-order option to experiment with.
- However, he is one of the few left-handers in the squad, making him a valuable addition.
- Deepak Hooda, on the other hand, gives the team flexibility.
- Hooda has batted from opening to No 7 in all positions.
- However, Hooda hasn’t been a reliable power-hitter at No 6-7 positions.
- To make things worse, Rohit Sharma hasn’t trusted his spin bowling as much.
- Apart from the century opening the innings against Ireland, Hooda hasn’t had his bat talking as much.
- Although Hooda has scored 293 runs in 9 innings at an average of 41.85, his place in the top-order is almost impossible.
- At No 6-7, he hasn’t done that well.
- With the ball, he has got just 6 overs, picking up just one wicket at an economy rate of 5.33.
India T20 WC squad: Deepak Hooda and Axar Patel both named in India’s T20 World Cup squad as Ravindra Jadeja replacement – Check out
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With Ravindra Jadeja, India could afford to play him at No 5 or at No 7 depending on the situation. However, with both Hooda and Axar, there will be limitations. However, both offer much-needed depth with both bat and ball and create plenty of options for Rohit Sharma.
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, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh.
India T20 WC squad: Deepak Hooda and Axar Patel both named in India’s T20 World Cup squad as Ravindra Jadeja replacement – Check out
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