With the T20 World Cup approaching thick and fast, pundits have started picking their ideal playing XIs for the marquee event. Recently former cricketer Irfan Pathan picked his India’s playing XI for the global T20 competition.
The Men in Blue have named a squad on expected lines with not many surprises. However, the think tank will have a tough time to pick one of the two wicketkeeper-batters in Rishabh Pant and Dinesh Karthik.
Irfan Pathan, who has seen both players from close quarters, showed trust in Karthik’s abilities. Picking his playing XI in an interaction with Star Sports, the former India all-rounder said:
“See, in my opinion, if you’re playing the first match, you need to have some experienced bowlers including one spinner. So, from the top, my playing 11 would be – Rohit, KL Rahul, number three – Virat (Kohli), number four – Suryakumar Yadav, number five – Deepak Hooda, number six – Hardik Pandya, number seven – Dinesh Karthik, number eight will be a right arm leg spinner so it would be (Yuzvendra) Chahal, 9 to 11, here there will be Jasprit Bumrah, Harshal Patel and along with that you can go for Bhuvneshwar Kumar.”
“It’s just whether I can make space for Arshdeep in the team” – Irfan Pathan on left-arm pacer’s inclusion
Irfan Pathan also reckoned that he can accomodate left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh too into the playing XI according to the combinations and conditions on offer. He added:
“So, there will be a combination here, three fast bowlers out of which two are quality fast bowlers, who will be able to bowl at the death as well. And I will make sure that I have the combination and the liberty to choose from the three fast bowlers, even Arshdeep (Singh) to handle the death bowling So, in my opinion, in the playing 11, the spinner is clear, it’s just whether I can make space for Arshdeep in the team.”
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