Former India cricketer and commentator Sanjay Manjrekar has taken a huge call of dropping Virat Kohli from India's T20 World Cup squad. In Star Sports' special segment 'Visa to ICC Men's T20 World Cup', Manjrekar was asked to pick a 15-member squad for the mega event and he made a few surprising decisions mostly based on the performance in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) season.
Notably, Kohli is the orange cap holder at the moment and despite scoring more than 400 runs, he is not the part of Manjrekar's squad for the World Cup. Moreover, even Hardik Pandya hasn't made the cut as his returns are diiminished as an all-rounder this season while leading Mumbai Indians. As far as the squad is concerned, Rohit Sharma is the captain with Yashasvi Jaiswal opening the innings with him and the 58-year-old has gone with Sanju Samson at number three followed by Suryakumar Yadav and Rishabh Pant.
Sanjay Manjrekar has also backed KL Rahul to make it to the squad for the T20 World Cup with Ravindra Jadeja. Krunal Pandya as the back up spinner is a massive surprise in his squad as he stated that the LSG all-rounder is having a decent IPL season with the ball. Interestingly, there is no place for Rinku Singh who has been a designated finisher for India for the last 12 months or so.
The bowling attack comprises of players like Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj who seem to be automatic picks. But the rest of the players are certain to raise a few eyebrows as he has gone for Yuzvendra Chahal, Avesh Khan, Harshit Rana and Mayank Yadav all of whom are doing well in IPL 2024. Among them, Chahal is among top two in the race for purple cap with 13 wickets to his name so far. For the unversed, India's squad is set to be announced in the next few days and it remains to be seen if Manjrekar's 'out of the box' team will match with it.
Sanjay Manjrekar's India squad for T20 World Cup 2024: Rohit Sharma (C), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Avesh Khan, Harshit Rana, Mayank Yadav, Krunal Pandya
