Following their early exit from the 2022 Asia Cup, India have announced their World Cup T20 2022 squad that will be travelling to Australia for the tournament in October.
The squad features many of the existing players from the Asia Cup squad, but notably, sees the side’s fast bowling attack return to full strength, with Harshal Patel coming back into the team after injuries kept him out of the Asia Cup 2022.
Deepak Hooda and Axar Patel retain their places, while Ravindra Jadeja is confirmed as missing the tournament due to an injury sustained at the Asia Cup. Ravi Bishnoi and Avesh Khan fail to secure inclusion in the 15-man squad, and Deepak Chahar also miss out, listed as reserves ahead of the 2022 T20 World Cup. Jasprit Bumrah has been ruled out due to his back stress fracture.
Below we cover India’s full squad, and breakdown their selections in detail based on position.
Rohit Sharma (captain), KL Rahul (vice captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Ravi Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel and Arshdeep Singh.
For a 15-man squad, it is interesting to see India only name four specialist batsmen.
India are taking the following specialist batsmen to the T20 World Cup in October:
Of these four batsmen, all are almost certainties of their positions in India’s starting 11.
Captain and vice-captain Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul have proven themselves to be India’s preferred opening pair. The two started each of India’s Asia Cup matches together, with the exception of their final match against Afghanistan, where Kohli moved up the order to give Sharma a rest. Their best partnership was 54/0 off 4.6 overs, with Sharma collecting 133 runs across the tournament, one more than Rahul’s 132.
Both Virat Kohli and Suryakumar Yadav have also been regulars for India in recent times, with the two playing each of India’s five Asia Cup matches. Their typical spots are No.3 for Kohli and No.4 for Yadav, however across the Asia Cup Kohli opened once, and Yadav batted three times at No.4, once at No.5 and once at No.3. Each showed good form, with Yadav striking 68 off 26 against Hong Kong, and Kohli hitting his first century in 1000+ days, with 122 off 61 against Afghanistan.
Expect these two to remain constants for India in the T20 World Cup, with a little tinkering in their positions depending on the opposition.
Player | Matches | Runs | Average | Strike Rate | Highest Score |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rohit Sharma | 136 | 3620 | 32.32 | 140.63 | 118 |
KL Rahul | 61 | 1963 | 39.26 | 140.91 | 110* |
Virat Kohli | 104 | 3584 | 51.94 | 138.37 | 122* |
Suryakumar Yadav | 28 | 811 | 36.86 | 173.29 | 117 |
Player | Matches | Runs | Average | Strike Rate | Highest Score |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rohit Sharma | 9 | 181 | 25.85 | 131.15 | 60 |
KL Rahul | 6 | 108 | 21.60 | 112.50 | 51 |
Virat Kohli | 11 | 451 | 64.42 | 144.55 | 90* |
Suryakumar Yadav | - | - | - | - | - |
An India with as many all rounders as specialist batsmen, speaks to the abundance of talent they have.
However, the recent injury to Ravindra Jadeja means that the following players have been named in India’s T20 World Cup squad as all rounder options:
Hardik Pandya is another player who has been a mainstay in India’s playing 11 recently, though he did only play 3/5 of the recent Asia Cup matches. The big hitting all rounder has 496 T20I runs since the start of last year, and 16 wickets. His ability to take wickets at crucial times and swing the momentum of a match through his six hitting skills mean he was a certainty to be in India’s T20 squad, and has a good chance of starting most matches.
Deepak Hooda retains his place as a batting all rounder, and looks the next likely of India’s all round options to secure a position in the playing 11. The recent Asia Cup tournament saw Hooda secure three starts and play two innings, at No.7 both times. With only 19 runs across these two innings, Hooda is lucky to have retained his spot—Jadeja being ruled out with injury likely helped, as he competes with the hard hitter all rounder for the finisher position in the batting line-up.
Ravi Ashwin will be another player who benefits from Ravindra Jadeja’s injury, as he will likely get more game time as a spinner who can contribute with the bat as well.
The 35-year-old veteran has 66 T20I wickets for India, as well as 161 runs at a strike rate of 117. Despite these underwhelming figures, Ashwin’s experience and ability to strangle an opposition through low economy rate will be what sees him in this India side ahead of other bowlers such as Ravi Bishnoi.
Finally, Axar Patel will likely only be used as a spin option based on pitch condition and the form of Ashwin, with the spinner being called into India’s Asia Cup squad, but not used at all.
Player | Matches | Runs | Batting Average | Strike Rate | Wickets | Economy |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Hardik Pandya | 70 | 884 | 23.26 | 144.68 | 54 | 8.30 |
Deepak Hooda | 12 | 293 | 41.85 | 155.85 | 1 | 5.33 |
Ravichandran Ashwin | 56 | 161 | 32.20 | 116.66 | 66 | 6.81 |
Axar Patel | 26 | 147 | 18.37 | 137.38 | 21 | 7.27 |
Player | Matches | Runs | Batting Average | Strike Rate | Wickets | Economy |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Hardik Pandya | 6 | 78 | 39.00 | 156.00 | 3 | 11.14 |
Deepak Hooda | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Ravichandran Ashwin | 5 | 15 | - | 93.75 | 5 | 7.40 |
Axar Patel | - | - | - | - | - | - |
India have selected two wicketkeeping options, both of which have the ability to be selected as a specialist batsmen as well:
In fact, on two occasions in the most recent Asia Cup, India selected both wicketkeepers in their playing 11, with Dinesh Karthik a specialist batsman and Rishabh Pant keeping.
Both men underwhelmed have underwhelmed with the bat recently, yet are known as game changers. Pant is a genuine talent who can come in at anywhere from opener to No.7, and take the game away from the opposition in a matter of overs. The left-hander is closing in on 1000 T20I runs, and has an average of 23.94 at a strike rate of 126 for India.
Dinesh Karthik, on the other hand, is less versatile, but a devastating specialist finisher. The death overs are where Karthik thrives, and there are few in the T20 game who are able to close out games better than Karthik and hit from the very first ball.
Pant has the edge in playing 11 selection over Karthik as a keeper-batsman, but there’s every chance India will opt to play both men, keeping Karthik as a death overs hitter.
Player | Matches | Runs | Average | Strike Rate | Highest Score |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rishabh Pant | 58 | 934 | 23.94 | 126.21 | 65* |
Dinesh Karthik | 50 | 592 | 28.19 | 139.95 | 55 |
Player | Matches | Runs | Average | Strike Rate | Highest Score |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rishabh Pant | 3 | 20 | 10.00 | 117.64 | 20 |
Dinesh Karthik | 4 | 60 | 30.00 | 153.84 | 30 |
The bowling is where India have chosen to bring the most depth to the T20 World Cup, with five specialist bowlers, to go with their three bowling all rounders as well.
Here are the five specialist bowlers India have selected in their squad for the 2022 T20 World Cup:
India will be pleased to see their full compliment of fast bowlers reunited. Mohammed Shami and Bhuvneshwar Kumar are the veteran fast bowlers, while Arshdeep Singh is a specialist death bowler and Harshal Patel brings good right arm outswing to the mix.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar will be looking to maintain his Asia Cup form, which saw him the tournament’s leading wicket taker on 11 wickets with an economy of 6.05. Arshdeep Singh will be eager to improve however, having only taken five wickets with a poor economy of 8.63.
Meanwhile, Shami and Patel will be hoping their time off for injury hasn’t got them too rusty as they head into the World Cup shortly.
Yuzvendra Chahal rounds out India’s bowlers, a strong spin option to go with that of all rounders Ravi Ashwin and Axar Patel. Expect India to play Yuzvendra Chahal in their playing 11, as the wily spinner has established himself as India’s premier spinner, taking 19 wickets already this year in T20Is.
Player | Matches | Wickets | BBI | Average | Economy |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Yuzvendra Chahal | 66 | 83 | 6/25 | 24.32 | 8.08 |
Mohammed Shami | 17 | 18 | 3/15 | 31.55 | 9.54 |
Bhuvneshwar Kumar | 77 | 84 | 5/4 | 21.73 | 6.86 |
Harshal Patel | 17 | 23 | 4/25 | 20.95 | 8.58 |
Arshdeep Singh | 11 | 14 | 3/12 | 20.14 | 7.38 |
Player | Matches | Wickets | BBI | Average | Economy |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Yuzvendra Chahal | 3 | 4 | 3/25 | 29.25 | 9.75 |
Mohammed Shami | 1 | 0 | 3/23 | - | - |
Bhuvneshwar Kumar | 3 | 2 | 2/20 | 34.00 | 6.80 |
Harshal Patel | - | - | - | - | - |
Arshdeep Singh | - | - | - | - | - |