India’s selection dilemmas for the T20 World Cup
Live MintWhat makes T20 cricket in the United Arab Emirates interesting is the variety of playing conditions at the three venues: Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Sharjah. India’s selectors have loaded the team with five spinners—left-arm spinners Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel, leg-spinner Rahul Chahar, mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy, and off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin—in the hope that wear and tear on the UAE pitches will make them more spin-friendly by the time the World Cup comes around next month. It’s unlikely to change drastically when India play their first 2021 T20 World Cup game on 24 October, against Pakistan. India’s arch rivals have the six-foot-six-inch Shaheen Shah Afridi and two other six-foot fast bowlers, Haris Rauf and Mohammad Hasnain, along with experienced medium pacer Hasan Ali. If India do make changes to the squad before 10 October, depending on how the pitch is playing in Dubai and the form of players in the IPL, we could well have the inclusion of two pace bowlers in place of a spinner and the struggling Kumar.