Ajit Agarkar and Rohit Sharma in press conference© AFP
There was a lot of conversation surrounding the wicket-keeping position in India’s squad for the T20 World Cup 2024 and the selectors finally went with Rishabh Pant and Sanju Samson. The inclusion of two specialist wicket-keepers meant that there was no place for KL Rahul in the 15-member squad as well as the reserves. It was a big call from the selectors considering Rahul has enjoyed a good run of form in the ongoing IPL 2024 and he also became the first wicket-keeper batter to score 400 runs in this year’s competition. BCCI chief selector Ajit Agarkar opened up about the decision to not include KL Rahul in the squad and said that they were looking for players who can bat in the middle order. On the other hand, Rahul has played solely as an opener for his IPL side Lucknow Super Giants this year.
“KL’s a terrific player. The thing we all know that is we were looking for guys who bat in the middle. We feel Sanju has the ability to come down the order if need be. Rishabh batting at No. 5 for DC. It wasn’t whether KL is better or these guys are better. It’s about the slots we needed and we felt that these two are better equipped at this point in the latter half of the innings. KL’s batting at top right now (for his IPL team),” Agarkar said.
Agarkar also spoke about the impact of IPL performances on India’s team selection.
“A little bit of a challenge. You try and plan before IPL starts. We had conversations in the last few months anyway. You keep a track of performances and fitness of players but if you get swayed by 3 months of cricket then there’s something wrong in the way you pick players. We were pretty clear in our thinking.”
India’s squad for T20 World Cup 2024: Rohit Sharma (C), Hardik Pandya (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Sanju Samson, Shivam Dubey, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra ChahalArshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj, jasprit bumrah.
Reserves: Shubman Gill, Rinku Singh, Khaleel Ahmed, Avesh Khan
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