The BCCI announced India’s squad for the T20 World Cup 2022 on Monday (September 12). Since then, many former cricketers have been picking their preferred India’s playing XI for the marquee event, which is scheduled to commence in October.
Recently, Cheteshwar Pujara and Robin Uthappa named XI, which they think India should field in the T20 World Cup. The latest addition to the list is former Indian cricketer Irfan Pathan, who released his choice of XI on Star Sports.
While the 37-year-old picked the conventional top four of Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli and Suryakumar Yadav, he went on to pick Deepak Hooda ahead of Rishabh Pant to bolster the middle-order. Hardik Pandya and Dinesh Karthik will take care of finishing duties for the Men in Blue.
“See, in my opinion, if you’re playing the first match, you need to have some experienced bowlers including one spinner. So, from the top, my playing 11 would be – Rohit, KL Rahul, number three – Virat (Kohli), number four – Suryakumar Yadav, number five – Deepak Hooda, number six – Hardik Pandya, number seven – Dinesh Karthik, number eight will be a right arm leg spinner so it would be (Yuzvendra) Chahal, 9 to 11, here there will be Jasprit Bumrah, Harshal Patel and along with that you can go for Bhuvneshwar Kumar,” Irfan told.
Explaining his choice of bowling line-up, Irfan expressed his desire to make a way for Arshdeep Singh in the XI, who can handle the bowling duties towards the business end of the match.
“So, there will be a combination here, three fast bowlers out of which two are quality fast bowlers, who will be able to bowl at the death as well. And I will make sure that I have the combination and the liberty to choose from the three fast bowlers, even Arshdeep (Singh) to handle the death bowling So, in my opinion, in the playing 11, the spinner is clear, it’s just whether I can make space for Arshdeep in the team,” he added.
Irfan Pathan’s XI: Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik, Yuzvendra Chahal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Jasprit Bumrah.
