T20 World Cup 2021, Shardul Thakur replaces Axar Patel: BCCI on Wednesday announced that the All-India Senior Selection Committee after a discussion with the team management has replaced Axar Patel with Shardul Thakur in Team India's squad for the T20 World Cup in the UAE.
Axar will now be on the list of stand-by players along with Shreyas Iyer and Deepak Chahar. Interestingly, Venkatesh Iyer and Harshal Patel will also be among 8 players who will assist Team India in its preparations.
BCCI was forced to get in an extra pacer due to uncertainty around Hardk Pandya's bowling, who didn't ball a single delivery in the UAE leg of the IPL. Him being available as a pure batter would have left Team India with just 3 specialist fast bowlers.
India’s squad for ICC T20 World Cup: Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Rahul Chahar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Shami