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World T20 2021 India Bring Shardul Thakur To Main Squad In Place Of Axar Patel

World T20 2021 | India bring Shardul Thakur to main squad in place of Axar Patel

India have elevated Shardul Thakur to the main squad selected to play in the upcoming T20 World Cup in place of all-rounder Axar Patel, BCCI said in a statement. Shardul has been added to the 15-man squad while Axar has been swapped into reserves for the tournament along with Shreyas Iyer and Deepak Chahar.

India got more time to finalise their squad after the ICC allowed the teams of the super 12 stage to finalise the squad by October 15.

The move to bring Shardul into the squad can be seen as a decision to make up for the uncertainties surrounding the bowling fitness of Hardik Pandya. Notably, India had selected only three pacers—Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and Mohammed Shami in the first squad with Hardik expected to be the fourth seamer.

However, lack of clarity over his fitness and also him not bowling in the second phase of the IPL 2021 right before the world cup would have urged both the team management and selection committee to bolster the pace department.

The rest of the members of the squad keep their places and there has not been any change in the spin department with the likes of Rahul Chahar, Varun Chakravarthy, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja keeping their place in the 15-man squad.

India’s squad for ICC T20 World Cup

Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Rahul Chahar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Shami

Stand-by players

Shreyas Iyer, Deepak Chahar, Axar Patel

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