T20 World Cup: Ashwin returns to Indian squad, Chahal misses out, Dhoni to be mentor

New Delhi: New Delhi: India on Wednesday announced their 15-member squad for the 2021 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, beginning on October 17 in the UAE and Oman, with off-spinner R Ashwin making a return to the white-ball squad after a lay-off.

The 34-year-old Ashwin last played a T20I in July 2017 against West Indies before being sidelined from white ball squad following the Champions Trophy.

However, he captained the Punjab team in the IPL in the 2018 and 2019 seasons, bagging 10 and 15 wickets respectively. Ashwin shifted base to Delhi Capitals in 2020 and picked up 13 wickets at an average of 30.07 and an economy of 7.66 in his first season for the side.

Ishan Kishan, Axar Patel and Varun Chakaravarthy were rewarded for their consistent performance in the IPL. Also making the squad was Suryakumar Yadav, who has done consistently well in IPL.

Meanwhile, the wrist-spin duo of Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav were left out for the multi-team event. Varun Chakravarthy, who has impressed in the IPL, has also been selected in the 15-member side, with Ravindra Jadeja, Rahul Chahar and Axar Patel making up the spin department.

Shikhar Dhawan, who recently captained the limited-overs side in Sri Lanka, was a notable absentee while the selectors also chose to leave out Prithvi Shaw. Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul are the main openers while skipper Virat Kohli is also an option at the top of the order.

Shreyas Iyer, Deepak Chahar and Shardul Thakur will be the reserves for the Indian team.

Meanwhile, former Indian captain MS Dhoni will serve as mentor for the team during the course of the tournament.

Jay Shah, the BCCI Honorary Secretary, revealed the thinking behind appointing Dhoni, the former India captain who led the side to the inaugural T20 World Cup trophy.

"As far as Dhoni is concerned, I spoke to him when I was in Dubai. He was okay with the decision, and he agreed to be a mentor for team India, for the T20 World Cup only, ' said Shah.

"I spoke to the captain (Virat Kohli) and vice-captain (Rohit Sharma) as well as Ravi Shastri (the head coach), and that’s why we reached the conclusion,' he added.

Kohli’s side will open their campaign in a Super12 encounter against Pakistan in Dubai on 24 October.

Apart from Pakistan, India have been pooled with Afghanistan and New Zealand in Group 2, as well as two sides who progress from Round 1 of the tournament, beginning on 17 October.

The top two teams in each group of the Super12 stage progress to the semi-finals, with the final set to be played in Dubai on 14 November.

Full squad: Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Shami, R Ashwin, Axar Patel, Ishan Kishan, Rahul Chahar, Varun Chakravarthy

Standby players: Shreyas Iyer, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar. (UNI)