The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) senior national selection committee on late Saturday night picked the 15-member squad. The big name missing from the squad is Sanju Samson KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, along with Suryakumar Yadav find a spot as per a report in The Indian Express. The selection committee chairman Ajit Agarkar Ajit Agarkar flew to Sri Lanka to meet captain Rohit Sharma, coach Rahul Dravid and discuss the squad before making a final call.
The 15-man squad has not been announced yet. However, the three names missing out the bus are wicketkeeper and batter Sanju Samson, young Tilak Varma and pacer Prasidh Krishna.Ishan Kishan features in the 15-man squad as the second-choice wicketkeeper batter, toppling Samson. Rohit Sharma will, of course, lead the side in the World Cup with Shubman Gill being his opening partner. Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav will be part of the middle order. The all-rounders picked for the World Cup are Hardik Pandya, Shardul Thakur and Axar Patel.Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj will be part of the pace bowling unit while Kuldeep Yadav will be the lone wrist spinner in the squad.
The delay in announcement of World Cup squad was due to KL Rahul's fitness concern. Agarkar-led panel waited for clearance from the medical team. As soon as they got the clearance, they decided to hold a meeting and finalise the 15-man team. Team India will play their first match if ICC ODI World Cup against Australia on October 8 at MA Chidambaram stadium in Chennai. They play Afghanistan next on October 9 followed by the biggest game of the tournament, against arch-rivals Pakistan on October 14 at Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad.
