India fast Harshal Patel has regained full fitness and will be back in action during the T20I series against Australia at home later this week. Not only that, the right-arm pacer, regarded a T20 specialist, has also been included in India’s squad for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 to be played in October-November.
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Harshal’s return is one of the major developments for Indian team in the past week or so after it sorely missed his services at the Asia Cup 2022 where they exited in the Super Four stage. Besides Harshal, Jasprit Bumrah was also recovering from an injury forcing him out of the continental tournament but has now seemingly recovered.
Known for his clever change of pace and ability to pick wickets, Harshal made his India debut last year in November and has since played 17 T20Is in which he has 23 wickets at 20.95 and an economy of 8.58.
During an interaction with fans on a channel recently, Sunil Gavaskar was asked about why Harshal has been picked since he has less pace and will leak runs at the T20 World Cup in Australia.
Gavaskar responded by to the fan who raised doubts over Harshal by asking to wait and see, and not make presumptions before the match has even been played.
“Aagey jaa kar dekhenge na unki pitai kaise ho sakti hai! Aap ne pehle se hi tay kar diya pitai hogi kyunki wo slow bowling karte hain. Yaar, pehle match toh hone do. Uske baad aap bol sakte hain aisa ho gaya, waisa ho gaya (We’ll see whether he gets thrashed or not, You have already made your assumption because he’s not fast. My friend, at least let the match happen first and then you can make your arguments’,” replied Gavaskar during the show on Sports Thank you.
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India’s squad for ICC T20 World Cup: Rohit Sharma (captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel , Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh.
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