Star All-Rounder Excluded From WC 2023! Ex-Coach Picks Indian Team
Shardul Thakur has been impressive in ODIs [X.com]
To the delight of fans across the globe, the much-awaited ODI World Cup is all set to commence on October 5. If we talk about the Indian team, the Men in Blue, led by Rohit Sharma, will kickstart their final dress rehearsal in the Asia Cup 2023, set to commence on August 30.
Although the squad picked for the Asia Cup will likely feature in the World Cup, former Indian all-rounder Sanjay Bangar has selected his team for the showpiece event. However, Bangar, who also had a coaching stint with the Indian team, left out Shardul Thakur, who has been a consistent performer in the ODIs.
As quoted by Sportskeeda, Bangar chose all the first-choice batters, while picking Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel and Hardik Pandya as the designated all-rounders.
Here's what Bangar stated
"My specialist batters would be Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, while wicket-keeper batters are Ishan Kishan, KL Rahul. For spin bowling all-rounders, I would prefer both left-armers - Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja," Bangar said.
“One pace bowling all-rounder would be Hardik Pandya, while the specialist spinner would be Kuldeep Yadav. The four fast bowlers would be Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh,” he concluded.
Bangar's opinion raised a few eyebrows, as Thakur has been an exceptional performer in ODIs, scalping 36 wickets and scoring 208 runs in 23 appearances since 2022. He has been India's go-to man with the ball in the middle overs, while Arshdeep hasn't had enough ODIs under his belt.
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