Former Indian cricket team opener Aakash Chopra recently picked his Indian squad for the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup 2022. The cricketer-turned-commentator started the selection by picking the trio of Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Virat Kohli, who are the top three-highest ranked Indian batters on the ICC T20I Rankings for batters.
Interestingly, Chopra did not pick the IPL 2021 Orange Cap winner Ruturaj Gaikwad in his squad. It seems the commentator left Gaikwad out of the squad because he is yet to prove himself in international cricket.
After the top three batters, Chopra picked the trio of Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer as the middle-order options along with explosive wicket-keeper batter Rishabh Pant who is most likely to be the primary wicket-keeper of the squad.
Aakash Chopra then named two pace-bowling all-rounders and a spin-bowling all-rounders by adding Venkatesh Iyer, Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja to the squad. He went with two pace-bowling all-rounders because both are destructive batters plus the conditions in Australia will be good for the pace bowlers.
Deepak Chahar is slightly ahead in my list because he bats as well – Aakash Chopra
Speaking of the bowlers that Aakash Chopra picked, he felt Deepak Chahar is ahead of Bhuvneshwar Kumar for the powerplay bowler’s spot because he can bat better. Chopra felt Bumrah is confirmed to play, while he list Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan, Mohammed Siraj, Mohammed Shami, T Natarajan and Khaleel Ahmed as the six names who could take the next two spots. Yuzvendra Chahal was the sole spinner in the team.
“Deepak Chahar is slightly ahead in my list because he bats as well. Bhuvneshwar Kumar is bowling better at the moment but eight months’ time is still left. So one out of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Deepak Chahar,” said Chopra on his YouTube channel.
Here is his full squad: Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar/Deepak Chahar, Prasidh Krishna/Avesh Khan/Mohammed Siraj, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Virat Kohli, Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Venkatesh Iyer, Hardik Pandya, Mohammed Shami/T Natarajan/Khaleel Ahmed
