IND vs IRE: Sanju Samson OUT, Yashasvi Jaiswal in at 3; Sunil Gavaskar picks India's Playing 11

The Indian cricket team is all set to kick off their ICC T20 World Cup 2024 against Ireland on Wednesday, June 5, at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York. Ahead of India’s T20 World Cup 2024 opener, legendary batter Sunil Gavaskar unveiled his playing XI for the Men in Blue against Ireland with a number of surprises.

The former Indian skipper was adamant in his past statement that Virat Kohli deserves to open along with the captain Rohit Sharma for the Men in Blue in the T20 World Cup 2024. However, Gavaskar surprised one and all by retaining Yashasvi Jaiswal in his playing XI for the IND vs IRE clash in New York.

Sunil Gavaskar predicts bold playing XI for IND vs IRE clash

Going against the left-right theory, Gavaskar picked Rohit and Virat—both are right-handed batters—as his opening pair and surprisingly, he handed the crucial number three spot to the young opener Jaiswal in his India’s XI for their T20 World Cup 2024 opener against Ireland. This bold move surprised many on social media.

Notably, the left-hander Jaiswal has never batted outside the opening position for either India or the Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the IPL. However, the youngster batted No. 3 for Mumbai in the 2021 and 2022 editions of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and scored 303 runs in 13 innings at a strike rate of 132.31 with just one fifty to his name. So, Gavaskar’s choice left many puzzled.

In his batting line-up, Gavaskar picked Suryakumar Yadav at the No. 4 slot, while, as expected, he dropped Sanju Samson and picked Rishabh Pant as his wicketkeeper-batter and slotted him into the fifth position. The former Indian skipper then picked three all-rounders in his ideal playing XI for India at the expense of an extra pacer, and that’s a bit beyond my understanding.

Sunil Gavaskar picks only two pacers in his Playing XI for India

The legendary batter named Hardik Pandya as his all-rounder at No. 6, followed by Ravindra Jadeja and Shivam Dube in India’s XI for the T20 World Cup 2024 game against Ireland. He handed the unusual batting position to Dube, despite the fact that the fact that he has never batted at No. 8 for India in T20I cricket.

His third most surprising call was to pick just two pacers for the IND vs IRE clash, dropping Arshdeep Singh despite his impressive performance in the warm-up game against Bangladesh last week in New York. Gavaskar picked only Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah in his pace attack.

Kuldeep Yadav is the only specialist spinner in Gavaskar’s playing XI, as he brings variety and the ability to take crucial wickets in the middle overs. In a video posted by Star Sports on X, Gavaskar said, “I don't really like selecting teams because you cannot satisfy everybody. There will always be somebody's favorite player who is not being picked. Here's my effort to try and pick the eleven for the game against Ireland.”

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A surprise inclusion at number 3, plenty of batting options and two pacers! 😮

What changes would you make to this team?

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Here’s Sunil Gavaskar’s playing XI for the India versus Ireland game:

Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj.