Dilip Vengsarkar not happy with India’s T20 World Cup squad

Ever since BCCI announced the squad for the T20 World Cup, debates have broken out across the country.

This is natural as India is a cricket crazy nation and everybody thinks of themselves as selectors!

However, there are some whose opinions have to be taken seriously.

Like former India middle order batter and legend, Dilip Vengsarkar.

Vengsarkar is not thrilled with the team selection.

After all, the team consisted largely of players who took part in the recently concluded Asia Cup, where India were knocked out in the Super 4.

India suffered consecutive defeats against Pakistan and eventual title winners Sri Lanka, and looked toothless in bowling and batting.

Naturally, everyone expected that there could be a couple of changes to the squad.

These hopes were dashed as the final squad looked like this.

Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wk), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Hardik Pandya, R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh.

Vengsarkar, who has also served as the chairman of the national selection committee in the past, named 3 players who he would like to see in the squad.

Namely, fast bowlers Mohammed Shami and Umran Malik and opening batter Shubman Gill.

“I would have picked Mohammed Shami, Umran Malik and Shubman Gill for the T20 World Cup.”, Vengsarkar said.

“Would have given them a long run in T20Is because they all had a brilliant IPL season,”

“I can’t really comment on who bats at what number. It is up to the think tank, the coach, the captain and the vice-captain.”

“But I feel Suryakumar Yadav, who is batting at 4, can bat at 5 as well. He can be a great finisher,” he said.

“T20 is not like ODIs and Test cricket, where you need certain batters at certain positions. In this format, anybody can bat anywhere.”

“You don’t have time to settle down. One should go after the bowlers from ball one,” Vengsarkar added.

The exclusion of Shami was a shock even to ex-head coach Ravi Shastri.

He said, “I’m surprised about Shami not being in the reckoning for the T20 World Cup despite being the highest wicket taker for the Gujarat Titans in their title-winning season in the IPL this year.”

Meanwhile, there are a lot of murmurs about opener KL Rahul’s place in the squad.

Rahul struggled in the Asia Cup and has struggled to find form since returning from an injury.