India’s best: As the fifth Test between India and England was called off citing Covid scare, fans were extremely disappointed as five days of delightful cricket was taken away from them.
They will have to wait for a staggering nine days before the domestic extravaganza kicks off for its second phase at UAE with a blockbuster clash between defending champions, Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings.
In the meanwhile with the Indian team announced for the T20 World Cup, there are a lot of speculations about how exactly the team is going to shape up in the biennial cricket fiesta.
In this story, we will take a quick glance at the strongest playing eleven for India in the T20 World Cup.
Openers: KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma
Rahul and Sharma are in the dream form of their life as the duo have been weathering the English storm in the longest format of the game comprehensively and the shortest format of the game is the couple’s forte. Both are excellent hitters of the ball and have an exceptionally variegated arsenal at their disposal. Another interesting fact that really makes these two one of the best opening pairs of the tournament is that both of them loves to attack the ball and that is crucial in T20 cricket, especially in the powerplay.
Middle-order: Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja
The Indian skipper is known to bring down dynasties on his heyday and he actually has been in tremendous form in the last couple of T20 series that he has been a part of. Kohli has ruled England and Australia on his own terms and will come into the tournament as the king we know him to be.
Suryakumar Yadav has proven his worth time and time again ever since his inception in international cricket. The man plays colossal strokes effortlessly and irrespective of the situations that his team is in, he loves to go after the bowlers. He also sports an eerie calm in face of calamities and actually has the ability of sustaining an innings.
Rishabh Pant is the sheer entertainer of the side and the dynamic hitting that this diminutive southpaw can unleash upon the bowlers is more than enough to make the Indian fans reminisce Yuvraj Singh at his magnificent best.
Hardik Pandya has failed to find his footing for a while now and fans believed that his inclusion to the squad could have been avoided. However, it is needless to say that he is the closest we will ever come to MS Dhoni as a finisher and his rollicking hitting prowess laced with an over or two can lead to severe menace as he has a knack of breaking partnerships.
Ravindra Jadeja has been the nexus of the Indian cricket team for a while now and will once again be indispensable to the World Cup squad, given his dexterity in all the disciplines of the sport. A lightning fast fielder, a rollicking batter and a wicket-taker and absolutely the best of all of them, you simply can’t put him down.
Bowlers: Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Shami, Jasprit Bumrah
Jadeja being the second spinner, Ashwin’s inclusion will be vital for the Indian squad given his economical spells in UAE. More importantly, he can bat a bit and that will allow India to stay afloat till a significant depth in case of a batting collapse.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar is one of the best death bowlers that India has in their ranks. Against England, he once again proved his mettle with a couple of concrete performances. Even against Sri Lanka, he was one of the rare bowlers who would go onto make a significant impact despite India losing out on the series.
Mohammed Shami’s inclusion to the squad means that India will have an expert swing bowler in their ranks and with a new ball, he can be absolutely devastating. Also, after watching him swing his willow in England, I am pretty sure that it won’t hurt to witness him producing some late entertainment.
You need some brutal pace, a couple of sweet-chin-music and a couple of nasty toe-crushers, you call this man named Bumrah. You won’t get a finer death bowler than the Indian express and he intends to make things personal.
