NEW DELHI, Sept 5: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Tuesday announced the 15-member squad for the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 scheduled to be held in India in October/November.
Rohit Sharma has been retained as the captain, while Hardik Pandya will be the vice-captain. The squad was announced by BCCI chief selector Ajit Agarkar with India captain Rohit Sharma sitting by his side.
The Board made a bold call in giving wicket-keeper batter K L Rahul the nod despite the fact that he is out of cricket for a considerable period of time and didn’t even figure in the first two matches of Asia Cup 2023 due to injury. Tilak Varma, who was selected in India’s 17-member team for the Asia Cup, didn’t find a place in the 15-man World Cup squad and Sanju Samson too was left out. Similarly Prasidh Krishna, who returned to Indian squad during the West Indies tour after a long injury lay off, also did not find a place in the World Cup squad while pacer Jasprit Bumrah, who led the side in Ireland, returned.
Following is the squad: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya (vice-captain), Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj.
Form of players, challenge posed by opposition team will dictate playing XI for the day, said Rohit Sharma.
There were no surprises in the team selection after chief selector Ajit Agarkar had suggested that the World Cup squad will be picked from the 18-member Asia Cup squad (including the reserve Samson).
“We have picked best possible combination. We have depth in batting, we have spin and other bowling options. Hardik Pandya is a complete package, his form will be crucial for us at World Cup” Rohit Sharma said.
With Rahul now declared fully fit, he was picked for the World Cup squad. The wicket-keeper batter is also expected to fly to Sri Lanka and remain available for selection for India’s Asia Cup Super-4 matches.
There was a point during the press conference when Rohit lost his cool, as he was asked about ‘outside noise’. “Don’t ask me such questions when we do press conferences in India. We don’t want to pay attention to outside noise. I have already said many times, we do not pay attention to those things and I will not answer those questions now,” he said.
(Manas Dasgupta)