R Ashwin Over Chahal in T20 World Cup - Justified?

A couple of hours ago, India’s squad for the 2020 ICC T20 World Cup (now 2021 because of a year’s delay) was announced and quite a few questions are being raised by fans and cricket enthusiasts around the country. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) made the announcement through secretary Jay Shah and Selection Committee Chairman, Chetan Sharma today.

While there were quite a few known and expected names in the list for the 2021 T20 World Cup squad, some notables to have missed out were Shreyas Iyer, Shikhar Dhawan, Yuzvendra Chahal and you could even say, Shardul Thakur. It was unfortunate for Iyer who has been out with injury, though he has been one of India’s top run scorers in the T20I format over the last 2 years or so.

On the other hand, many are also questioning how ‘Gabbar’ Shikhar Dhawan didn’t make the cut. However, you could say this was coming when he was captaining India’s so called ‘B-team’ earlier in July this year. This biggest absentee of course was Yuzvendra Chahal who is nothing but India’s most attacking spinner in the T20 format, and fans are shocked and his omission from the squad.

In the T20I format, no Indian bowler has more wickets than Chahal, with 63 scalps in just 49 T20 games at the international level. What was more surprising is that Ravichandran Ashwin found a place in the 2021 T20 WC squad over Chahal, with the former having not represented India in any white ball cricket for 4 years now.

Ashwin has proved to be very expensive and ineffective in the shortest format and last played a T20I in July 2017, which made the decision highly shocking. Additionally, he wasn’t picked for a single of the 4 Tests that were completed in England currently, with one Test still to be played. With his lack of gameplay and experience of late, do you think this selection was justified?

Ashwin over Chahal?

Good decision to pick Ashwin over Chahal in the T20 World Cup squad?#Vote #Poll #Voting #Polling #Ashwin #Chahal #RaviAshwin #YuzvendraChahal #T20WorldCup #T20WorldCupSquad #T20WorldCup2021 #T20WorldCup21 #India #TeamIndia #Follow #Like #Retweet #RT #Audience #Selection #Team
— Read Scoops (@ReadScoops) September 8, 2021