Team India’s former batter Mohammad Kaif believes the absence of Yuzvendra Chahal from playing XI in the T20 World Cup was a big mistake. Mohammad Kaif criticized the team selection as leg spinners always play a crucial part in Australian conditions and the same was the case in this year’s T20 World Cup.
Mohammad Kaif shocked by Chahal’s exclusion
“Leg-spinners have a crucial role and every team plays a leg-spinner – be it England, Australia, or South Africa. Look at ICC bowling rankings and you will find that four to five leg-spinners are part of the top 10. Finger spinners don’t get much help in Australia. There is bounce; hence the wrist spinners come into play. Not playing Chahal was a big mistake. Only Rohit and Dravid can explain it,” Kaif said on Sportskeeda.
“Varun Chakravarthy was picked for the last World Cup because he did well in the IPL that was held ahead of the tournament. The selectors get so influenced by IPL performances that they end up making mistakes. Chahal did not play last year, and this year too he was benched for the entire tournament,” the former batter added.
It’s quite surprising that Chahal was excluded from the 15-member squad for the 2021 T20 World Cup. He was then included in the squad for 2022 World Cup but didn’t get a single game as the team management preferred Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel ahead of him. Both the finger spinners failed to create any sort of impact when the team needed them the most.
Team India faced a humiliating loss against England in the semifinal of the 2022 World Cup. None of the bowlers were able to take a wicket as the duo of Buttler and Hales chased down India’s total of 168 runs without any difficulty.
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Team India’s campaign was led by the new-ball pair of Arshdeep Singh and Bhuvneshwar Kumar as they kept on picking wickets in all the games. They were well supported by Mohammad Shami and Hardik Pandya but the team lacked skills in taking wickets in the middle overs where Yuzvendra Chahal could have proved to be vital for the team’s cause.