Under the leadership of Rohit Sharma, Team India will be hoping to end their title drought in the upcoming edition of the T20 World Cup 2022, which is set to take place from October 16 to November 13 in Australia.
The last time India had won an ICC trophy was back in 2013 under the captaincy of MS Dhoni when the ‘Men in Blue’ had won the Champions Trophy. In the previous edition of the 20-over showcase, India had a terrible campaign as they could not make it to the group stage and were ousted from the global showpiece event.
Ahead of the T20 World Cup 2022, India will participate in the Asia Cup, which can turn into a perfect platform for the players to improve their consistency or regain their lost form. But what should be the ideal combination for the forthcoming events will be a burning question, and former India opener Wasim Jaffer has chosen his full India squad for both Asia Cup and T20 World Cup.
Jaffer reckoned the selectors are most likely to pick almost the same players in the squad for the Asia Cup and T20 WC, as both the tournaments are scheduled within a space of one month. The Mumbaikar felt that pacer Deepak Chahar might get preference ahead of Mohammed Shami in the squad.
“In the Asia Cup, the selectors will not want to pick players who are not in the frame for the World Cup, and you need to back them without any chopping/changes. In the squad, it will be a choice between Mohammed Shami and Deepak Chahar, and it remains to be seen if he can attain full fitness ahead of the tournament,” said Jaffer, as quoted by CricTracker.
Jaffer went with some regular choices to complete the rest of the squad. He picked KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, and Ruturaj Gaikwad as openers, while in the middle-order, he went with the likes of Virat Kohli and Suryakumar Yadav. Jaffer also had toss ups between Dinesh Karthik/Sanju Samson and Axar Patel/Kuldeep Yadav. As backup options, Jaffer picked Prithvi Shaw, Rahul Tripathi and T Natarajan.
“As a backup option, you can choose Prithvi Shaw, and Rahul Tripathi can be a wild card entry to this squad. Then Natarajan will be one of the contenders as well,” he added.
Here is Wasim Jaffer’s Probable India Playing XI for the Asia Cup and T20 WC:
- KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma (c), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Harshal Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah
- Other members of the squad: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Dinesh Karthik/Sanju Samson, Axar Patel/Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami/ Deepak Chahar
- Backups: Prithvi Shaw, Rahul Tripathi, T Natarajan
