The T20 World Cup 2024 starts on June 1, 2024, with Team India playing their first game against Ireland in June in Dallas, Texas, USA. They then play Pakistan in the much-awaited contest in New York on June 9, followed by league matches against the USA (June 12) and Canada (June 15).
All the major T20I sides apart from Pakistan have named their T20 World Cup squads so far. Every team has tried to cover up the major combinations as they have named their squads.
Team India like the other teams, has tried doing the same. While their squad looks balanced, the only area of concern is that they look a bit lean on their finishing skills with the bat. The absence of Rinku Singh from the squad is a major omission.
Ajit Agarkar and Rohit Sharma while addressing the press conference after naming the T20 World Cup squad spoke about why Rinku was not included in the squad. The Indian cricket experts and the Indian cricket fans were left shell-shocked to see Rinku missing from the squad.
Heading into this T20 World Cup squad, not all the players are in good form. Form is a major concern with Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya. Rohit started the season well but went off the boil in the second half of the season. Meanwhile, Hardik has looked in no form whatsoever with the bat.
India won the inaugural edition of the T20 World Cup and since then have been waiting to win their next. In more recent years, they have made it to the final but failed to win ICC tournaments. Once again the nation’s hopes are pinging on the team. In this article, we take a look at India’s strongest XI for the T20 World Cup.
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Strongest India Playing 11 for T20 World Cup 2024
Batters: Rohit Sharma (C), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav
Rohit and Jaiswal should ideally open the innings for India. There have been talks about Rohit and Virat very likely to open the innings. But opening with Rohit and Jaiswal helps India maintain the right-left combination.
Kohli has played his best cricket for India at three and he should bat at that number. His numbers ar that position for India are incomparable and hence that is his best number.
SKY can bat at four. He has done well for India in that number and can bring about his unorthodox strokeplay in that batting position. Rohit and SKY’s batting form should not be a concern for India.
All-Rounders- Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja
Pandya will likely be chosen over Shivam Dube in the lineup and Jadeja will slot in as the other all-rounder. Pandya’s form with the bat has been a major concern this season.
He has not scored a fifty this season. With the ball, he has bowled his quota of overs in more games than not, especially since the announcement of India’s T20 World Cup squad.
Wicketkeeper-Rishabh Pant
Pant and Samson are the two wicketkeepers selected in India’s World Cup squad. Pant is likely to be selected over Samson purely because of the number at which he bats. The southpaw gives a lot of flexibility to the Indian batting lineup as he can bat anywhere between three to seven.
Sanju Samson primarily bats at number three and has batted at that number since becoming the skipper of Rajasthan Royals. Thus this is the reason why Pant is likely to be selected over Samson.
Bowlers: Jasprit Bumrah, Md Siraj, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav
Bumrah and Siraj will spearhead the Indian attack with Arshdeep Singh as the third bowler. The MI pacer has shown good form with the ball as has the left-arm pacer Arshdeep.
Both the pacers have picked up more than 15 wickets in IPL 2024 which gives a glimpse of their good form with the ball. Siraj after getting some stick in the first half of the tournament has made a good return in the second half of the tournament.
Kuldeep Yadav will be the specialist leg spinner in the tournament. Though both he and Chahal have shown good wicket-taking form in the season, Kuldeep might get selected over Chahal as he has done well for India in the last couple of years and also maintained a level of consistency.
It will be interesting to see whether the management thinks about playing Chahal and Kuldeep together in the playing XI.
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