India's predicted playing XI for ICC T20 World Cup 2021

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced a 15-member squad for the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup 2021 on Wednesday (8 September). The Chetan Sharma-led selection panel had a few surprising omissions in Shikhar Dhawan, Yuzvendra Chahal, and Krunal Pandya. While it also had some surprising picks in Ravi Ashwin and Axar Patel. Surprising because they haven’t played white-ball cricket for a long time and were out of favor due to Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, and more recently Washington Sundar playing well for the past two years.

But off-spinners Sundar’s untimely finger injury meant that a potential all-rounder’s slot opened up and the selectors took a wise decision in end by trying to include utility players in Axar and Ashwin. Considering the pitches in UAE will favor spin the need to include five spinners gives India a balance to the squad.

The selectors have also included the ever-improving Suryakumar Yadav, Rahul Chahar. Both made significant contributions during the limited-overs series against Sri Lanka and earned the right to be in the team. Meanwhile, Rishabh Pant is the designated wicketkeeper-batter with Ishan Kishan as the backup. Bhuvneshwar Kumar returns to the squad and Ravindra Jadeja is also one of the spinners.

With the announcement of a strong squad, we at CricTracker have decided to form India’s strongest predicted playing XI for the big event.

 India’s predicted playing XI for ICC T20 World Cup 2021

1. Rohit Sharma

Rohit Sharma has been one of the best opening batsmen globally in white-ball cricket currently. The right-handed batsman has been in fantastic touch of late with the willow.

Speaking of numbers in T20I cricket, Rohit Sharma has aggregated 2,864 runs in 103 T20I innings. He is only behind skipper Virat Kohli in terms of batsmen with the most runs in T20 international cricket. Besides, Rohit has scored four centuries and 21 fifties in this format.

A few fans have even opined that the team management should assign Rohit Sharma captaincy ahead of the T20 World Cup. While Virat Kohli is unlikely to lose his captaincy, Rohit would surely feature in the team as a specialist batsman. Also, he will support Virat in the leadership group.