The Cricket World Cup 2023 will kick off on Thursday. England and New Zealand will compete in the tournament’s opener on October 8. Ten teams will compete in the tournament at ten different venues in India, with a total of 48 games to be played.
Team India is ready for the mega event and is among the top favorites to lift the cup. India made a notable change in their squad and added veteran spinner Ravi Ashwin in place of injured Axar Patel. It will give the team more variety in the bowling department.
However, one player who was unfortunate to miss the squad was Yuzvendra Chahal. The veteran leg-spinner has missed major tournaments for India in recent times. It will be worth watching whether India can manage without Chahal and perform with the other spinners available, or whether Chahal will be missed on the Indian pitches.
Former Indian star and key member of India’s 2007 and 2011 World Cup teams, Yuvraj Singh, reckons that leaving out Chahal is the biggest mistake made by Team India, and it will become a big worry for the team.
In an interaction at Week’s, Yuvraj said that Chahal could prove to be dangerous on Indian pitches, and when Hardik Pandya gives you the option of a third seamer, then Chahal could have a chance in the team.
(5:40) Yuvraj said, “Leaving out Yuzvendra Chahal could be a mistake could be a worry. At least we could have kept him in the squad.” The former star also spoke about the return of Jasprit Bumrah but said that winning the Asia Cup doesn’t guarantee that they will also win the World Cup.
Speaking on the Indian middle order, Yuvraj said that the management needs to find out whether they want to go with Ishan Kishan or Shreyas Iyer in the middle. India will be playing warmup games against England and Netherlands on September 30 and October 2, respectively. It will be interesting to see what combination they choose for the middle order.
