'One name however hasn’t attracted that much focus': Ashish Nehra excludes veteran pacer in his India squad for T20 WC

Ashish Nehra selected his Team India roster for the upcoming T20 World Cup, but had a surprising exclusion in the bowling department.

With Team India having exited the ongoing Asia Cup 2022, fans and experts have already turned their attention to the upcoming T20 World Cup this year. Last year in the marquee tournament, India crashed out of the Super 12 stage, and had a disappointing campaign. Led by Rohit Sharma in this year's tournament, India will be aiming for a better showing. Former cricketer Ashish Nehra decided to share his predicted Indian squad roster for the tournament, but surprisingly left out Deepak Chahar and Mohammad Shami.

Ashish Nehra chose his Indian team for the T20 World Cup.(Hindustan Times)

Speaking on ICC Review, Nehra picked KL Rahul as the opener with Rohit Sharma. "We still have a long way to go as far as the T20 World Cup is concerned, so I think we will see a lot from KL Rahul in the next six games", he said.

The former pacer then went on to add Virat Kohli as his number three, and Suryakumar Kumar at no. 4 or 5. "SKY should be in the eleven because you then have an alternative to Rishabh Pant. You can swap the two—on 4 or 5," he said. After Suryakumar, Nehra selected Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja as his no.5 and 6 respectively.

In the bowling department, Nehra noted the importance of spinners and then named Arshdeep Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel and Jasprit Bumrah as his pacers. "Not only Chahal and Jadeja are important, even Ravi Ashwin is also important. Even if he plays, he can make an impact", he said.

"One name, however, comes in my mind and that is Mohammed Shami. Being a Test specialist, he hasn’t attracted that much focus from the selectors. And I am not saying this because I saw him up and close in Gujarat Titans", he further added.