T20 World Cup 2024: The 17th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is in full flow, as the season has gotten off to a wonderful start as the ten IPL teams battle it out against each other to get their hands on the precious IPL Trophy. But, there is one topic that will dominate the discussions during the 2024 Tata IPL, which is the ICC T20 World Cup, 2024, as the tournament is going to start just five days after the conclusion of IPL 2024.
India’s squad for this year’s mega event is slated to be announced in the final week of April. All the Indian players would be looking to perform well in IPL 2024, which will help them cement their spots in India’s squad for the 2024 T20 World Cup.
Former Indian pace bowling all-rounder Irfan Pathan, in an interview with ESPNcricinfo, picked the Men in Blue’s likely squad for this year’s mega event. In his squad, he mentioned the importance of Virat Kohli for the Indian squad and completely quashed the rumors of him getting dropped from the team in the shortest format of the game.
Alongside Rohit and Virat, the younger Pathan also included the likes of Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav, Rinku Singh, and Yashasvi Jaiswal, and all these players will be expected to handle the Indian batting unit. Pathan also included Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja as the all-rounders but left out the likes of Shivam Dube, Axar Patel and Washington Sundar.
The most controversial topic for the squad of the Rohit Shamra led team is the position of the wicketkeeper, as no player has cemented his place as a wicketkeeper. Irfan wants to see the return of Rishabh Pant to the Men in Blue squad for the 2024 T20 World Cup and has also included Jitesh Sharma and KL Rahul as backups. He said that at least two of these players must board India’s flight to the USA and West Indies for the 2024 T20 World Cup. He didn’t find any space for the likes of Ishan Kishan, RR Captain Sanju Samson, and Dhruv Jurel in his predicted squad.
The 39-year-old took a straight forward decision to include the wrist-spin duo of Ravi Bishnoi and Kuldeep Yadav in his team, as the duo have been regularly featuring for the Men in Blue in the shortest format of the game since the end of the 2023 ODI World Cup. RR leggie Yuzvendra Chahal was not able to find a space in Irfan’s team. Yuzi has not featured in any game for India since August 2023.
Talking about the pace bowling department, the experienced duo of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj made the cut in Irfan Pathan’s team. But, he made a surprise inclusion of LSG seamer Mohsin Khan as the third-pace bowler. The 39-year-old said that one of Mohsin or Arshdeep should get picked in India’s squad for the 2024 T20 World Cup.
Irfan Pathan’s squad for India in the 2024 T20 World Cup
Rohit Sharma (Captain), Virat Kohli, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rinku Singh, Suryakumar Yadav, Shubhman Gill, Ravindra Jadeja, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant, Jitesh Sharma / KL Rahul, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravi Bishnoi, Jaspri Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Mohsin Khan / Arshdeep Singh
Read: Pakistan’s predicted 15-member squad for the 2024 T20 World Cup