Indian ace Deepak Chahar has been ruled out of the T20 World Cup after sustaining yet another injury during the South Africa series. This comes as a blow for him after he missed the Indian premier League (IPL) 2022 entire season. Shardul Thakur who is a like-to-like replacement will now be roped in as a replacement.
Shardul Thakur
The change will have no impact on India's initial 15-member squad as the main squad stays as it was with one vacant spot of Jasprit Bumrah. The Indian pacer was also ruled out and is likely to be replaced by Mohammed Siraj or Mohammad Shami in the main squad.
Shardul Thakur will now travel to Down Under where the rest of the squad is already present. He presents a healthy option for the Indian side and has the ability to bat and bowl and offers the utility option to the side. The BCCI had already planned to make use of like-to-like replacements and Shardul fits the bill.
The BCCI will likely name a replacement for Bumrah in the next few days and there is a big competition for that place after Siraj impressed against South Africa. It was earlier thought that either Chahar or Shami will make the squad, but Siraj's 'Player of the Series' performance has now seen him come into contention. This will be a good headache to have for the team as they will have the luxury to play Siraj in the nets.
Umran Malik and Sai Kishore will also be part of the bowling contention and will bowl in the nets. Between Siraj and Shami, whoever misses out on the 15-member squad will still board the plane provided, that they will be part of the reserve team.
India Squad: Rohit Sharma (C), KL Rahul (VC), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh.
