'You require player who has a experience' - Irfan Pathan omits Rishabh Pant from his ideal XI for the T20 World Cup

The 2022 edition of the T20 World Cup is just a few months away and teams will be looking to finalize their squad for this mega tournament in Australia. India currently ranks first in the ICC men’s T20I chart and will be one of the favorites to win the trophy in November. Fans continue to speculate their preferred Indian squad and several experts have also been giving their opinion on the same. Former Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan has named his ideal eleven but surprised fans by dropping some big names.

Rishabh Pant has been receiving a lot of criticism from the fans and former cricketers for his below-par performance in the recently concluded five-match T20I series against South Africa. He scored just 58 runs in five innings at a poor strike rate of 105.45. Now there is a big question of who will don the wicket-keeping gloves in the upcoming T20 World Cup.

Irfan Pathan picks Dinesh Karthik over Rishabh Pant

Dinesh Karthik returned to the international scenes after almost three years of gap after having an impressive IPL 2022 season with RCB. He scored 92 runs in four innings at a strike rate of 158.62 against South Africa and is included in the Ireland tour as well. Karthik is looking more confident with his role as a finisher and India can rely on him in difficult situations as well.

Apart from Karthik, India have another wicketkeeping option in form of KL Rahul who can play in different positions and in different roles. So, Pant needs to contribute much more with his batting to be part of the starting eleven for the upcoming T20I World Cup. Meanwhile, Irfan believes that the Indian side should go with experienced players, given the condition of Australian pitches. Irfan has also named the former captain Virat Kohli in his ideal eleven for the T20 World Cup but has dropped the likes of Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant.

“In Australia, you need strong starts as the ball swings and seams. You require a player who has experience. Kohli may not have performed well so far but in Australia, he has scored a lot of runs,” Irfan said on Star Sports.

Irfan Pathan’s ideal XI for the T20 World Cup: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Harshal Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah.