Gautam Gambhir picks India’s bowling armoury for the upcoming T20 World Cup

Gautam Gambhir, the former Indian cricketer, has picked the Men in Blue’s bowling attack for the T20 World Cup in Australia later this year. He made those important picks in Star Sports’ Show Cricket Connected. To start with, he went to Jasprit Bumrah, who hasn’t had the best of times in 2020 after returning from his lower-back injury.

But bearing in mind the class he possesses, its only a matter of time before he returns to form. Among other fast bowlers are Navdeep Saini, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami. Even as Shami has been in the thick of things in the last few months, Bhuvneshwar has had his fair share of injury concerns. The duo of Shami and Kumar is the most experienced of the seamers.

Saini, on the other hand, has always found backing from Gambhir. The Delhi speedster made his debut last year against the West Indies and picked up three wickets, including a wicket-maiden in the 20th over of the Caribbean innings. Later in 2019, he also forayed into ODI cricket. Saini was also one of India’s backup players for the 2019 World Cup in England and Wales.

No Deepak Chahar in the bowling attack

It didn’t spring a surprise that Hardik Pandya, being India’s premier all-rounder, found a place in Gambhir’s lineup. However, Gautam left out Shivam Dube, who was filling in for Pandya when the latter was recovering from an injury. Hardik was a part of the 2016 World T20 as well where he bowled the famous last over against Bangladesh at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Gambhir picked only a couple of specialist spinners in the form of Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav. The pitches in Australia may not be overly conducive to spin-bowling and hence, the veteran didn’t go for the likes of Washington Sundar, Krunal Pandya and Rahul Chahar. To the surprise of many, he didn’t pick Deepak Chahar, who got a six-wicket haul last November against the Tigers in the Nagpur T20I

Chahal and Kuldeep have been two of India’s most consistent tweakers, having done well in overseas conditions as well. Gambhir, who got a match-winning fifty in the 2007 T20 World Cup final, didn’t pick Khaleel Ahmed, who made his debut back in 2018, as well.

Here is Gautam Gambhir’s bowling attack

Jasprit Bumrah, Navdeep Saini, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal.