Surprises and Shockers! R Ashwin back to squad and MS Dhoni to be mentor for T20 World Cup

New Delhi, Sept 9: In a major surprise for Indian cricket fans, R Ashwin has included the 15-member squad for the T20 World Cup 2021 and in addition to that MS Dhoni will come back as a mentor for Team India, the BCCI announced.

 

 

 

Dhoni, who retired from international cricket last August, was appointed to "provide support and direction," to the Indian team management led by head coach Ravi Shastri informed BCCI secretary Jay Shah. The squad consists of six specialist batters, three allrounders, three spinners and three specialist fast bowlers. For injury or COVID replacements, the selection panel led by Chetan Sharma selected Shardul Thakur, Shreyas Iyer and Deepak Chahar.

 

 

What came as a shocker was the name of Yuzvendra Chahal, nation’s highest wicket-taker in the shortest international format, was missing in the squad. Apart from that, Shikhar Dhawan was also not included. Varun Chakravarthy, Rahul Chahar, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan and Axar Patel will mark their debut in the upcoming T20 World Cup.

 

 

India and Pakistan will be locking horns on October 24 in a group-stage encounter. The tournament will get underway from October 17, with the final to be played in Dubai on November 14.

 

SQUAD: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma (vc), KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, R Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rahul Chahar, Varun, Mohammed Shami, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja, Ishan Kishan.

 

RESERVES: Shreyas Iyer, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur.