India announces 15-player squad for the ICC ODI World Cup 2023
Senior players such as Shikhar Dhawan, Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzi Chahal snubbed.
With just one month left for the biggest cricketing tournament, BCCI has announced the 15-man squad for the ICC ODI World Cup 2023 which is scheduled to take place in India. The squad was announced by BCCI chief selector Ajit Agarkar in a press conference along with Team India captain Rohit Sharma.
The Indian squad is to be led by Rohit Sharma who is the captain and Hardik Pandya who has been revealed as the Vice-captain. While the 15-man squad overall looks well, there are questions as always that follow the decisions made by the selection committee. Team India has gone with 7 batsmen and 4 all-rounders to give more batting depth to the team but this has come at the expense of losing good spin bowlers.
The squad shows senior players such as Shikhar Dhawan, Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal being given the boot despite the dire need to have good players in those very positions.
The selectors have very weirdly went ahead Suryakumar Yadav who has not yet proven mettle when it comes ODI cricket at the expense of Shikhar Dhawan. While Dhawan is an opener and Yadav is a middle order batsman, this change could’ve meant much more as Dhawan provides a much more experienced and reliable player compared to Yadav who has very underwhelming stats when it comes to ODIs. If Team India had gone with Shikhar, they could’ve solved their middle order problem with Gill coming on 3, Kohli on 4 and Shreyas Iyer on 5 providing a stable and reliable batting order.
Another decision that might soon draw criticism is the decision to not play any leg spinner or off spinner and instead go for only left handed spinners. Having snubbed Ashwin for Axar who could’ve been useful on Indian pitches by keeping a low economy rate and also would’ve come in handy when it came to troubling left handed batsmen, it will be worth watching what Axar brings to the squad if he even plays in the XI. Another decision that could come under fire is the decision to keep Yuzi Chahal outside the squad because of his wicket taking ability.
While, there will be unending debates on the squad, we can only wait and watch what the squad does when the time comes and hope that the decisions made help us win the World Cup.
The 15-man squad for the World Cup is as follows: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubhman Gill, Ishan Kishen (wk/bat), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul(wk/bat), Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya (vc), Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Md. Siraj, Md. Shami, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav.
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