Mayank Yadav takes Siraj’s place in India’s T20 World Cup squad of Harbhajan Singh shubham gill and Hardik Pandya not in the list
There was no place for star all-rounder Hardik Pandya in former India spinner Harbhajan Singh’s squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup in the Americas. Ahead of the deadline for the squad selection, Harbhajan picked his 15 players he thinks should be part of the squad for the World Cup. Apart from Hardik, Harbhajan also left out the likes of Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer. He, however, didn’t hesitate while picking IPL’s latest sensation Mayank Yadav, despite the pacer currently out of action due to workload management issue.
Mayank, who has a knack of breaching the 150kmph mark regularly, has played just two games so far, picking up six wickets. Harbhajan isn’t the first ex-player to vouch for his selection.
In the batting department, Harbhajan picked the likes of Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal to open, with Virat Kohli and Suryakumar Yadav at no. 3 and 4, respectively.
Rishabh Pant and Sanju Samson are the two wicketkeepers Harbhajan decided to pick with Rinku Singh and Shivam Dube also in the mix as finishers.
He went all-i
n, as far as the bowling department is concerned, with seven players, including all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja.
Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal were Harbhajan’s frontline spinners while Jasprit Bumrah, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh are the other pacers apart from Mayank
Harbhajan’s top order has no surprises. Rohit Sharma, the captain opens with Yashasvi Jaiswal, followed by Virat Kohli at 3 and Suryakumar Yadav at 4. That Shubman Gill isn’t the opener but Jaiswal is could be a subject of debate – Gill has more runs than Jaiswal in IPL 2024 – but it isn’t an unexpected call. Jaiswal was always tipped to be Rohit’s opening partner, and the century against Mumbai Indians the other evening only solidified that belief.
The No. 6 position is where opinions may collide. It’s no rocket science that Hardik hasn’t had the best of seasons as captain of the Mumbai Indians, and that his batting and bowling resembles a pale shadow of his former self. But for someone, who for the last year and a half – led India in T20Is with a pretty decent record while Rohit was out concentrating on ODIs, to get dropped altogether could be looked at as a rough call. Going by his recent string of performances – 151 runs and four wickets from eight matches – Hardik’s axe was imminent, and as a like-for-like replacement, Harbhajan had no doubts turning to Shivam Dube. The left-handed batter has peeled off three very exciting half-centuries at a mighty fine strike rate and continues to get better with each game.
