"Don't Think Rishabh Ka Jagah Ban Raha Hai But...": Suresh Raina On T20 World Cup Playing XI

With the T20 World Cup just days away, it's the final stage of preparation for all the teams. For India, it's is still not clear what their ideal playing XI should look like. The team is full of big names and some awesome hitters. However, with Ravindra Jadeja not part of the squad due to injury, there is a dearth of left-handers in the team. Wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant is one of the options but his form in T20s has not been great of late. However, member of 2011 World Cup-winning team Suresh Raina feels that a space needs to be created for him.

"Bowlers will have a lot of edge. They know which batters are capable. We need to have one left-hander in the middle-order then you can really change the momentum because if you see KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh, Surya, I don't think Rishabh ka jagah ban raha hai (Rishabh Pant will be an automatic choice) but we need to somehow bring him for the middle overs. Because some of the spinners, you need to target them," Raina said.

"In the bigger ground, you need to bat with intent where you can dominate. Australia has a batting till No. 10. England also know how to play white-ball cricket. Rohit, Surya have got a great intent. I think Virat will be the key because he knows how to finish. He has been batting really well. I hope if he bats for 20 overs, we will win all the matches."

India begin their campaign against Pakistan in Melbourne on October 23.

India squad for ICC T20 World Cup: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya, R. Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Shami.

Topics mentioned in this article

India Cricket Team Rishabh Pant Dinesh Karthik Suresh Raina Cricket ICC T20 World Cup 2022