With Washington Sundar injured, Ashwin was picked as the off-spinner in the squad. Also, with Rahul Chahar making the cut, senior leg-spinnner Yuzvendra Chahal missed out. Explaining the decision to pick Ashwin, despite him not having played a white-ball match for India since 2017, Sharma said, "Ravichandran Ashwin has been playing in the IPL regularly. He has performed well there. When you go into the World Cup, you need an off-spinner, everyone has an idea that the wickets in the UAE will get slower as IPL will also be played there. Spinners will get assistance so having an off-spinner holds the key. Washington Sundar is injured and Ashwin is an asset for the team. He has performed well in the IPL. so that is why he has found a place for himself in the squad. online Ipl betting Sites
Asked how much weightage is given to IPL performance while selecting national teams, Sharma admitted that the T20 league is a big tournament. He explained, "IPL is a big tournament where the best players around the world play. So you come to know about the performance of a player. The standbys have been picked keeping in mind that the players can get injured."
Apart from Chahal, senior opener Shikhar Dhawan has also been dropped. Sharma revealed that India preferred to go with Ishan Kishan as the third opener. He commented about the much-debated slot, "We have three openers. KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan. We back Ishan as an opener and in the middle-order as well. He can be fitted anywhere. Ishan Kishan is a flexible player, he has already opened. He is a good player of spin as well so he can be fitted in the middle-order. We have three openers for now."
"Virat has brilliant records in the middle-order while batting in the T20s. The situation will determine who opens but as of now, we have picked three openers -- KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, and Ishan Kishan," the chief selector concluded.
India squad for T20 World Cup: 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
Standby players: Shreyas Iyer, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur.
--By A Cricket Correspondent
