Virat Kohli, Rinku Singh, Hardik Pandya axed from India’s controversial T20 World Cup squad picked by Sanjay Manjrekar

In the lead-up to the T20 World Cup, several former cricketers have knuckled down to 15 players they feel should represent India at the global tournament taking place in the USA and West Indies from June 1, including Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Ambati Rayudu and Mohammad Kaif. But none of the calls were as bold as the decision to drop Kohli, a risk Manjrekar has taken.

“It’s very tough because there are quite a few good and quality players around, especially after the IPL, where you get too many options. But let me make an effort. Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal the opening pair,” Manjrekar said before dropping the Kohli omissions bomb.

Taking Kohli’s place in India’s line-up of Manjrekar, the No. 3 position belongs to Sanju Samson, the Rajasthan Royals captain, who has been in good nick in the ongoing IPL 2024, scoring almost 400 runs from eight matches. The usual suspects follow, with Suryakumar Yadav at No. 5 and Rishabh Pant at 5. He then proceeded to pick KL Rahul as a second back-up wicketkeeper, leaving no space for the burgeoning talent Rinku Singh either. Instead, Manjrekar went ahead with just one all-rounder in Ravindra Jadeja. He reunited the ‘Kul-Cha’ pair of Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja to make it three spinning options in India’s T20 World Cup squad, before moving on to select five pacers.

Before the five pacers are revealed, let’s take a cursory look at how Manjrekar’s first 10 picks pan out. Rohit is the captain, while Jaiswal’s inclusion comes as no surprise either. What does however, is startling is Kohli not finding a place. The former India captain has played just two T20Is since India’s semi-final defeat at the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia, scoring 0 and 29 against Afghanistan in January this year.

While there initially were doubts over Kohli’s future in India’s T20I scheme of things – with a viral report stating otherwise – the uncertainties were shelved when Kohli began playing for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the IPL and scored runs. He is the current Orange Cap holder with over 400 runs including a century, well ahead of the rest of the pack. Having said that, his strike-rate of 145 isn’t the most flattering from the T20 point of view.

In fact, after leading RCB to their first win of the season against Punjab Kings, Kohli even had a cheeky reply to Ravi Shastri and Kevin Pitersen’s ‘he should be in the USA to promote the game’ theories. But as the days progressed, Kohli’s selection was pretty much given. Why Manjrekar didn’t pick Kohli in his squad is something only he knows as he offered no reasoning thus far, but this sure is, the least to say, a shocker.

What is with Rinku Singh’s omission?

As is Rinku’s snub. The left-handed batter has done everything right thus far for India scoring 356 runs from 15 T20Is at an average of 89 and strike rate of over 175. From being part of the gold-medal winning Asian Games campaign in China last year to performing the finisher’s role against the likes of Australia and South Africa, Rinku hasn’t put a foot wrong. In fact, outside of Rohit, Kohli, Suryakumar and Jasprit Bumrah, if there’s one name that’s a certainty for India for the World Cup, it is Rinku Singh. But apparently Manjrekar thinks otherwise.

Finally moving on to the fast bowlers, Manjrekar picked Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj as his leading pacers. While Bumrah lead the Purple Cap list with 13 wickets, Siraj has endured a woeful run with RCB, grabbing 5 wickets from eight matches. Besides, his economy-rate of 9.63 promises to give the selectors a major headache, more so with no Mohammed Shami available. Hence, with India having a thin stock of fast bowlers to pick from, Manjrekar turned to youngsters to give Bumrah and Siraj company. He got Avesh Khan a place in his squad, along with Kolkata Knight Riders’ Harshit Rana and Mayank Yadav of Lucknow Super Giants.

But wait, that’s not it. Manjrekar sprung in a last surprise when his final pick was… wait-for-it… Krunal Pandya, the LSG left-arm spinner, who hasn’t played for India since July 2021.