Team India will have revenge on their mind when they take on arch-rivals Pakistan on October 23 for their first Super 12 game of the T20 World Cup 2022. Babar Azam’s side had defeated India by 10 wickets in last year’s T20 WC in the UAE; in the Asia Cup 2022, too, Pakistan stopped India’s progress to the final.
Despite the absence of the injured Jadeja and Bumrah, India have a strong squad on paper. But, the bowling attack is a concern.
India squad for T20 World Cup 2022: 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, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Shami
While skipper Rohit Sharma recently claimed he’s certain about who will play in the first match against Pakistan, from the outside, it seems the management has conundrums at their hand.
Here are the 3 Indian players who are likely to miss out on the clash vs Pakistan:
Rishabh Pant
By playing Dinesh Karthik in all the last 6 T20Is – 3 vs Australia and South Africa each – India have made it clear that they have finalized Karthik as the first-choice wicket-keeper, who will play the finisher’s role with Axar Patel the only left-hander in top 7. Pant played vs South Africa but when Hardik Pandya was rested. India’s top 7 seems set with Axar and Karthik in it and Pant on the bench.
Pant hasn’t done a great deal of services to his chances either: in 17 T20I innings this year, he averaged a mediocre 26 at a strike rate of 136 with only one fifty. The management also deserves some blame: they have shuffled Pant around as an opener as well.
Deepak Hooda
As mentioned above, India’s top 7 seems decided with Suryakumar Yadav at number 4, followed by Pandya, Axar and Karthik. This leaves no space for Deepak Hooda, despite him being considered a batting all-rounder option – a similar profile as Ravindra Jadeja.
Hooda had replaced the injured Jadeja in a couple of games during the Asia Cup, but it was crystal clear that Hooda cannot be sent directly as a finisher, and that once again forced India to bring back in Dinesh Karthik in the specialist finisher’s role.
If other batters fail to deliver in 2-3 matches, Hooda could get a game in the tournament.
Ravichandran Ashwin
It also feels like the management has also pigeonholed R Ashwin as an off-spinner to be used only when the opposition has multiple left-handers: Ashwin was benched for all the 3 T20I vs Australia, who didn’t have any left-hander in their top 6; Matthew Wade was slotted at number 7. But Ashwin played in all 3 T20Is against South Africa, who had 3 left-handers in their top 5 and 4 in top 7.
Considering Pakistan’s latest batting order – in the game vs New Zealand, they had only 2 left-handers in top 7 – this makes a case to go against Ashwin to start on October 23. Further, India are likely to retain their faith in leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal and all-rounder Axar Patel; a third spinner – even of the quality of Ashwin – would be surplus, one would believe.