In a month’s time, team India will set on their challenge to win the T20 World Cup for the first time since 2007. The BCCI has announced the squad to tour Australia for the showpiece event in October.
India squad for ICC T20 World Cup 2022:
Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul (vc), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wk), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Hardik Pandya, R. Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh.
Reserves: Mohammed Shami, Shreyas Iyer, Ravi Bishnoi, Deepak Chahar.
This squad is mostly on predicted lines, however, India will miss Ravindra Jadeja’s services. In this squad, there are few players who most likely will play their last T20 World Cup and could either retire or be dropped from India’s T20I team after the tournament in Australia.
Here are 3 players for whom the T20 World Cup 2022 could be the last:
Dinesh Karthik
Until March this year, Dinesh Karthik was nowhere near the Indian team’s T20 setup, and had been dropped after the 2019 World Cup. However, thunderous performances in the IPL 2022 – 330 runs at a strike rate of 183 – forced the selectors to recall Karthik, at the age of 37, as a specialist finisher in the T20I team.
DK has won two Man of the Match awards on his return – vs South Africa and West Indies- and is expected to be in India’s starting XI at the T20 World Cup.
This is in all likelihood Dinesh Karthik’s last T20 World Cup; he will be of age 39 for the 2024 T20 WC.
Ravichandran Ashwin
Ravichandran Ashwin returned into India’s T20I team after four years at last year’s T20 World Cup in the UAE. And since then, the senior off-spinner has not put a foot wrong: since returning to the team last year, Ashwin has picked up 14 wickets in 10 matches, and, more importantly, conceded runs at a miser economy of 6.1.
He has showcased his improved batting during the IPL; in T20s this year, Ashwin has scored 229 runs at a strike rate of 144.
After this year’s T20 WC, India are expected to move toward young Washington Sundar as the off-spinning all-rounder, going past the 35-year-old Ashwin.
Rohit Sharma
Ever since Rohit Sharma was made the captain, the doubts were about the selectors’ plan because Rohit was already 35 when he was appointed the full-time skipper replacing Kohli.
Rohit Sharma will celebrate his 37th birthday before the T20 World Cup in 2024. And is unlikely to not only hold the captaincy post, but also may leave playing T20 cricket altogether to focus on his Test career and prolong his career in the longest format.
