VVS Laxman
VVS Laxman. Credit: PTI

With the T20 World Cup just a few months away, former India batsman VVS Laxman has announced his India squad for the marquee event. He revealed his team when India were busy playing against Sri Lanka in the second T20I on Tuesday at the Holkar Stadium in Indore. The Men in Blue started the T20 World Cup year with a stunning seven-wicket win over the Islanders.

Virat Kohli once again won the toss and elected to bowl first. The bowlers totally justified the decision by restricting Sri Lanka to a below par total of 142 for 9 in the allotted 20 overs on a good batting surface. The likes of Shardul Thakur (3 for 23) and Navdeep Saini (2 for 18) were the pick of the bowlers. For Sri Lanka, Kusal Perera was the top run-scorer with 34.

In reply, India chased down the total inside 18 overs and with seven wickets in hand. In-form KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan laid the foundation for the easy chase by adding 71 runs for the first wicket before the former departed for 45. Dhawan departed soon too after scoring 32 before Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer added 51 runs to help India win the game.

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VVS Laxman snubs Shikhar Dhawan, MS Dhoni:

VVS Laxman, meanwhile, did not pick senior opener Shikhar Dhawan and former captain MS Dhoni as he announced his India team for the T20 World Cup on Star Sports. But while both Dhawan and Dhoni are big names, their omission from VVS Laxman’s squad is not quite surprising.

Dhawan has not really managed to get going in T20Is in recent months and has struggled with the strike-rate. In his last 12 T20I innings, Dhawan has scored just 272 runs at a below-par strike-rate of 110.56. In his absence, KL Rahul has done extremely well. Even in the just-concluded T20I against Sri Lanka, Rahul did better than Dhawan. While Rahul scored 45 off 32 balls, Dhawan managed only 32 from 29 balls.

Shikhar Dhawan
Shikhar Dhawan. Credit: BCCI

As far as MS Dhoni is concerned, there is absolutely no clarity over his future. However, speculations are rife that he could play the T20 World Cup and can make a return to the team after the IPL. Barring the omission of Dhoni and Dhawan, VVS Laxman’s team had expected names.

Here is VVS Laxman’s Team for the T20 World Cup 2020:

Virat Kohli (C), Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Manish Pandey, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Deepak Chahar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar

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