T20 World Cup Squad: Indian Captain Rohit Sharma reportedly held a meeting with head coach Rahul Dravid and chief of the selection committee Ajit Agarkar at the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai last week. The three masterminds of Indian cricket discussed Team India’s squad composition for the upcoming T20 World Cup 2024, emphasising on Hardik Pandya’s selection.
As per the report published in the Indian Express, a sizable duration was dedicated to the discussion on Hardik Pandya’s chances to head to the Caribbean and the USA for the upcoming T20 World Cup.
It was, later, concluded that Hardik’s chances of making it to the T20 World Cup squad purely lie on his bowling exploits in the ongoing IPL 2024. Bowling regularly and effectively will be a key for the MI skipper to seal a spot in the Indian T20I side.
So far, Hardik Pandya has bowled 11 overs in his six IPL 2024 outings for Mumbai Indians in which he has conceded runs at an expensive economy of 12 and scalped just three wickets.
Hardik’s batting hasn’t been encouraging either. He has managed the scores of 11, 24, 34, 39, 21* and 2 in the six outings for MI. Moreover, his captaincy has also been flawed.
The all-rounder brings balance to the squad with his bowling abilities, although, his batting skills have just been ordinary so to say. In fact, team India has a string of players who can offer better batting skills than Pandya does.
Moreover, the other fast-bowling all-rounder options were under discussion, however, the trio felt there weren’t enough options to deliberate. CSK all-rounder Shivam Dube was under the eyes of the selectors, but unfortunately, he has only been used as an Impact Player by the Chennai Super Kings (CSK).
With no significant seam-bowling all-rounder options available around the Indian circuit, the Indian selectors are pinning their hopes on Hardik Pandya to come good in the upcoming games of the TATA IPL 2024.
The focus will be on the MI skipper, who is at the receiving end of all the criticism and bashing from the fans and cricket experts, as he leads MI in the remaining matches of the IPL 2024.
The Indian senior selection committee is set to meet at the end of the month as well to finalise India’s T20 World Cup squad. Team India under Rohit Sharma will begin their T20 World Cup campaign on June 5 against Ireland in New York.
Below is India’s T20 World Cup 2024 Schedule:
- India vs Ireland – June 5 – New York
- India vs Pakistan – June 9 – New York
- USA vs India – June 12 – New York
- India vs Canada – June 15 – Lauderhill