T20 World Cup 2022: Irfan Pathan Leaves Out Rishabh Pant In His Ideal Playing XI For India

Former Indian cricketer Irfan Pathan preferred to have in-form batter, Dinesh Karthik, in his playing XI for the T20 World Cup over wicket-keeper batter, Rishabh Pant.

Despite an attacking style of play, Pant’s weakest format has been the T20s. He has proven his credentials in Tests and ODIs but he is far from doing so in the shortest format of the game.

As a result, Pathan feels Karthik would be better suited to play in the T20 World Cup in Australia later this year. The top order consists of the regular senior pros, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and KL Rahul.

“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,” he mentioned.

Suryakumar Yadav was the choice for No. 4 over the likes of Shreyas Iyer, who has struggled against the short ball and fast bowlers.

“Apart from these couple of games, he has done well, be it the series against Sri Lanka or West Indies before the IPL. So yes, he is making his case very strong. He performed really well, he is just coming hard against the bowlers from the word go and that’s the kind of character you need as well when you want someone to bat higher up the order,” Pathan said of Iyer.

Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja are the all-rounders in the team while the bowling attack he opted to go for consists of Harshal Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, and Jasprit Bumrah.

Irfan Pathan’s India XI for T20 World Cup:

KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik, Ravindra Jadeja, Harshal Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah

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