Ravi Shastri Picks 2 Players Key to India’s T20 World Cup Hopes
With less than a month to go before India’s T20 World Cup campaign kicks off in New York, former head coach Ravi Shastri has identified two players who he believes will be crucial to the team’s hopes of claiming the title.
Surprisingly, Shastri did not select Virat Kohli or captain Rohit Sharma, who are both likely playing in their final T20I appearances at the tournament. Instead, he opted for two left-handed batters who are set to make their debut in a multi-nation ICC tournament for India: Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shivam Dube.
Jaiswal has enjoyed a successful start to his international career, smashing a record tally of runs in the Test series against England at home earlier this year. He has also been a force to reckon with in the shortest format, amassing 502 runs in just 16 innings for India since his debut in mid-2023, including a century and four fifties.
The other player picked by Shastri is Chennai Super Kings star Dube, who has cracked 26 sixes in just 11 matches in the ongoing IPL 2024 season. The left-hander earned his spot in the Indian T20 World Cup squad on the back of a stellar show in the T20 league in 2023 and 2024, along with his two back-to-back fifties for India in the home T20I contest against Afghanistan earlier in January.
Shastri was effusive in his praise for the tall all-rounder, saying that he could be the key to unlocking big totals for India in the T20 World Cup. Dube has struck at a rate of 170.73 in this ongoing IPL season, while scoring a boundary in almost four deliveries.
“His strike rate, which will be close to 200 most of the time, will help India immensely in going forward, getting those 190s, 200s that are needed in big competitions, especially like the [T20] World Cup,” Shastri said.
India will be hoping that Jaiswal and Dube can live up to Shastri’s expectations and play key roles in the team’s quest for T20 World Cup glory.
