India’s squad for the T20 World Cup 2022 has left the cricket fraternity divided. The BCCI on Monday announced a 15-man unit for the mega ICC event, scheduled to get underway next month in Australia. The likes of Jasprit Bumrah and Harshal Patel have returned to the mix after gaining fitness while all-rounder Axar Patel has replaced injured Ravindra Jadeja who recently underwent knee surgery. Avesh Khan is the only player from the Asia Cup to face the axe and to everyone’s surprise, Mohammad Shami fails again to make it to the main squad. However, he has been added to the standby list along with Ravi Bishnoi, Shreyas Iyer and Deepak Chahar.
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Former cricketers have been coming up with their opinions on the team selection. Some have lauded the squad while a few have suggested their pick of players who should have been added. Former India captain Mohammed Azharuddin said he was ‘surprised’ to see the Shami and Iyer missing from the 15-man list shared by the apex cricket board.
“Surprised at the omission of Shreyas Iyer and Md. Shami from the main squad,” Azhar tweeted.
Surprised at the omission of Shreyas Iyer and Md. Shami from the main squad. https://t.co/GOKUzRyMot
— Mohammed Azharuddin (@azharflicks) September 12, 2022
The former captain further suggested that he would have picked Shami ahead of Harshal and Iyer in place of Hooda for the upcoming T20 World Cup.
Shreyas Iyer instead of Deepak Hooda and Md. Shami in the place of Harshal Patel would be my choice.
— Mohammed Azharuddin (@azharflicks) September 12, 2022
Azhar’s opinion didn’t go down well among the cricket fans on social media. The netizens trolled him on Twitter, pointing out that Iyer’s weakness against short ball will be exposed on the bouncy Australian tracks if he gets selected. Here’s how the fans reacted:
Shreyash cannot play short pitch deliveries
— Subhash Sharma (@scsharma1959) September 12, 2022
@ShreyasIyer15 , Seriously? Australia main pitch bouncy hein aur yeah banda Bounce game
— Hilpesh!! (@hilpesh) September 12, 2022
Shreyas is not a good choice for major events but shami should be included in place of bhuvi. I expect more all rounders to be included in team india in future. Think of it
— Umesha Kumar (@UmeshaKumar4) September 12, 2022
Azhar as a great batsman yourself, do you see Shreyas playing horizontal bat shots against pace bowling on Aussie wickets?
— RP (@rajprem1) September 13, 2022
Iyer bhai India mai hi ni khel paata short balls,
Aus mai to fir kya hi hoga,,??
Shami ka im wid uu,,— TopiSAnkhyan (@AnkhyanS) September 12, 2022
Thank god, you are not the selector.
— Sanchit Barman (@barman_sanchit) September 12, 2022
Sorry sir but on what basis, Shreyas has a real struggle with short ball which he hasn’t yet overcome over the last whole year, all teams are gonna throw bouncers on him from ball 1, Shami ka may be a case bit Harshal has been equally good
— Prasanth.K.Alex (@hty89076) September 12, 2022
Meanwhile, the Indian selectors have also named India’s squads for the upcoming home T20I series against Australia and South Africa and have included Shami in it.
India’s squad for the Australia series: Rohit Sharma (captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, R. Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Harshal Patel , Deepak Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah.
India squad for South Africa T20Is: Rohit Sharma (captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant, Dinesh Karthik, R. Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Shami, Harshal Patel, Deepak Chahar , Jasprit Bumrah.
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