BCCI president Sourav Ganguly said India head coach Rahul Dravid and the team management are likely to play a settled unit from the England T20Is with the ones they think will go on to play the T20 World Cup later this year in Australia. With regulars Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, and Ravindra Jadeja either resting or nursing an injury, there have been a lot of experiments with the Indian T20 side. Rishabh Pant is leading India in the ongoing five-match T20I series against South Africa while Hardik Pandya has been named as the captain for the two-match series in Ireland slated later this month. But with the T20 World Cup barely a few months away, Ganguly said The World Cup probables will play from the England series.
“Rahul Dravid (Team India head coach) is looking into it. He has been planning to play a settled set of players at some stage. Probably from the England tour next month, we will start playing with players who are likely to play in the T20 World Cup in October,” Ganguly told news agency when asked whether it is ideal to rotate players in the year of an ICC event.
India’s young guns have done a stellar job in the South Africa series so far. From 0-2 down, they won back-to-back matches convincingly to push the series to the decider.
The likes of Ishan Kishan, Dinesh Karthik, Harshal Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Avesh Khan have produced a strong case for a spot in India’s T20 World Cup squad. Captain Rishabh Pant and batter Shreyas Iyer, on the other hand, have disappointed a bit and will be under a lot of pressure to hold on to their places.
The Ireland bilateral series beginng on June 26 will see the return of Sanju Samson, Suryakumar Yadav in the mix. Young top-order batter Rahul Tripathi has earned his maiden call-up but it is unlikely that he will get a game.
In England, India are set to play three T20Is, which is likely to see the return of captain Rohit, Kohli, and Jadeja.
As far as the bowling department is concerned Bumrah, Shami and Bhuvneshwar Kumar are certain among pacers. The fight will be between Deepak Chahar (if he regains fitness), Harshal Patel, and Avesh Khan for the remaining slots.
Yuzvendra Chahal is certain to lead India’s spin attack. It’ll be interesting to who among Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav and Ravi Bishnoi is selected as a back-up option.