Rahul Chahar and mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy were picked for the event.
Former Australian spinner Brad Hogg was “very surprised” with the exclusion of Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav from India’s squad for the next month’s ICC T20 World Cup 2021 in the UAE and Oman.
The spin duo of Chahal and Yadav were not named in either the 15-man Team India squad or the reserves for the T20 World Cup 2021 later this year, and Hogg feels the reason behind their non-selection would be them bowling slowly through the air, which might not work well in the conditions in the UAE.
As reported by Sportskeeda, Hogg said: “I'm very surprised with the exclusion of Chahal and Kuldeep. The only reason why I think those two particular players are not in this squad is that they find it very hard to bowl into the wicket, they're more floaty type bowlers and over in the UAE, when things are not turning, when there's not much assistance in the pitch, you need those spinners who can bowl into the wicket.”
The former wrist-spinner added, “If it was any place else in the world, one of those players would have been in the squad and it probably would have been Chahal.”
Discussing India’s combination for T20 World Cup 2021, the Aussie said: “I still think you need to go with three quicks in the lineup, Jadeja and Pandya as the fifth bowler and one frontline bowler. I think they could have gone with an extra quick and not go with Varun Chakravarthy.”
He signed off by saying, “You have quality spin bowling in R Ashwin, R Jadeja, and R Chahar and Axar Patel as well who can do the job. I think they've gone too far with Chakravarthy.”
Here is India's squad for T20 World Cup:
Virat Kohli (Capt), Rohit Sharma (Vice-Captain), KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (Wicketkeeper), Ishan Kishan (wicketkeeper), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Rahul Chahar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Shami.
Standby players: Shreyas Iyer, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur