T20 World Cup 2021: 4 worrying signs for India ahead of the tournament

Earlier, the BCCI selection panel had announced a strong 15-member squad for the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup, which is set to begin on October 17 in Oman and UAE. India, like many other top teams, went with horses for courses formula and packed the squad with five spinners. Also, they have included quite a few X-factor players like Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan and Varun Chakravarthy.

The trio’s addition to the squad comes from some solid performances in the domestic circuit as well in the Indian Premier League (IPL). It is a well-documented fact T20 format is all about game-changers, who change the complexion of the game quickly.

The BCCI selectors have also taken into consideration these factors and have named the players.
In an ideal world, team India members should be in UAE preparing for the T20 World Cup. Instead, the players are in playing the second leg of IPL. There are two sides to this the players will be prepared for T20 World Cup by playing more games. The flipside to it is some players, who have been selected, have shown indifferent form.

The BCCI has time to tweak the T20 World Cup squad till October 10 but by the looks of it, the selectors might back the players selected in the original squad. Nonetheless, they would be worried but also would have a belief that the out-of-form players return to form.

Meanwhile, here are some worrying signs for India ahead of the global event

1. Hardik Pandya not bowling

The biggest and probably one of the most important aspects is Hadik Pandya’s not bowling. While announcing the squad, the BCCI selectors had made clear that the all-rounder is fit to bowl during the T20 World Cup. He was also seen bowling during the limited-overs series against Sri Lanka, and that harbored hopes among the selectors and fans that Pandya might well play as an all-rounder for the team.

The opposite, though, has happened and Pandya has so far not bowled for Mumbai Indians (MI) in the three games that he has played in the UAE leg of the IPL. MI head coach Mahela Jayawardena says that the management does not want to push him as that might affect his batting. Considering that he is fit and has returned to bowl, this statement from the MI coach might start to worry Indian management.

Kohli has said in several of his interviews that how Pandya is vital for maintaining team balance. If he does play as a batter, then India yet again have to resort to playing seven batters.