Former India cricketer Irfan Pathan has picked his best playing XI of Team India for the forthcoming ICC T20 World Cup 2022, which is scheduled to be held in Australia from October 16 to November 13 this year.
Notably, Pathan included star batters KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli to complete the top order of his World Cup playing XI. However, the former India pacer didn’t include wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant in his team.
Pathan selected Kohli as the No.3 batsman in the team despite the dip in form of the former India skipper. Explaining the reason behind the same, Pathan said that Kohli has a very good record in Australia, hence he should be in the final XI.
“In Australia, you need powerful starts because the ball swings and seams a lot. So you need a player who has a lot of experience,” Pathan said on Star Sports.
“Kohli may not have performed well so far, but in Australia, he has scored a lot of runs,” he added.
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Interestingly, Irfan chose Suryakumar Yadav over Shreyas Iyer and Dinesh Karthik over Pant.
Notably, Karthik was in an impressive form in the recently-concluded Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) due to which the veteran wicketkeeper-batter received an India call-up for the T20I series against the South Africa.
Karthik repaid the selectors’ faith by playing a brilliant knock against the Proteas in the 4th T20I to ensure India levelled the 5-match series 2-2 at Rajkot after losing the opening two games of the series.
Meanwhile, Pathan picked Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja as the all-rounders in the team, while in the bowling department, he chose pacers Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah and Harshal Patel and spinner Yuzvendra Chahal.
It is worth mentioning that, Mohammed Shami and Ravichandran Ashwin didn’t find a place in Pathan’s playing XI.
Irfan Pathan’s playing XI for T20 WC 2022: KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik, Ravindra Jadeja, Harshal Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah.
