New Delhi: Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly picked his ODI squad for the upcoming ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023.
KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer were among the 15 players who had recently returned from injury but had yet to prove their match fitness.
Sourav Ganguly went with a strong batting lineup for the men in blue in the top order of Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, and Ishan Kishan, and then had experience in the middle order of Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, and Suryakumar Yadav.
Ganguly picked Kishan and Rahul as wicketkeeping possibilities, while Hardik Pandya was named vice-captain. Ravindra Jadeja and Akshar Patel were the spin all-rounder possibilities, with Kuldeep Yadav serving as the squad's sole pure spinner.
Ganguly did not pick Tilak Varma and Yuzvendra Chahal into the side but said that if any of the players turned unfit then they would be his first choice.
"If one of the middle-order batters gets unfit, then Tilak Varma [would come in]," Ganguly told Star Sports. "If one of the fast bowlers gets unfit; then Prasidh Krishna; if one of the spinners gets unfit, then Yuzvendra Chahal."
"I'll always pick Chahal. I'll always pick wrist spinners, I don't know what the selectors think but I'd always pick wrist spinners," he added.
"You need youth, a good team is a mixture of youth and experience. So you need the flamboyance of youth, the fearlessness of youth along with the season campaigners like Rohit, Virat, Rahul, Jadeja and Pandya. You need somebody to just go fearless," Ganguly concluded.
Sourav Ganguly's Indian sqaud for World Cup: Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Hardik Pandya (VC), Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur. (ANI)
