5 Players who can be Virat Kohli's 'surprise package' in T20 World Cup 2020

The T20 World Cup is just 10 months away and it will be back after a gap of four and a half years. The last time the tournament was played in March 2016 in India. This time, Australia are the host and the build-up has already started with most teams playing a lot more T20 cricket.

India have been on the road as far as T20s are concerned. They played three T20I series at home to end 2019 and have started 2020 with a three-match T20I series against Sri Lanka. The fast bowlers have done a fabulous job and have been one of the reasons for India’s success. In fact, despite constant injury woes, there have been bowlers who’ve stepped up and grabbed their opportunities.

Thus, after the second T20I against Sri Lanka, when skipper Virat Kohli was asked about the pecking order, he said, “I think one guy will be a surprise package going to Australia, someone who can bowl with pace and has bounce.” India are spoilt for choice and have quite a few pacers who’ve done well. There are a couple of fast bowlers who are doing well in the domestic circuit and the IPL as well.

Hence, here we pick five pacers who can be Virat Kohli’s surprise package that he was talking about in the T20 World Cup later this year:

1. Navdeep Saini

Navdeep Saini will be one of the first ones on this list. The Delhi lad has the ability to bowl fast and rattle the batsmen with pace. He made his T20I debut in the Caribbean and was impressive. However, a couple of indifferent outings against South Africa at home saw him face the axe.

But Saini went back to domestic cricket and performed really well. He picked up 10 wickets from six games in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. He returned to the Indian side at the expense of Deepak Chahar who was ruled out due to a back injury. Since then, Saini has shown that he has improved and worked on his bowling.

The 27-year-old pacer has been consistent and has bowled with a lot of fire. Saini took 2/58 on his ODI debut against West Indies and he has returned with five wickets from two games against Sri Lanka. He’s bowled some excellent yorkers and has got wickets as well with those. Saini also has a sharp bouncer. Hence, he could well be the man Kohli is looking for. Moreover, the pitches in Australia will help him get some decent bounce as well.