5 Indian Players Whose T20 World Cup Dream Might Cut Short After The Sri Lanka Tour

The T20 World Cup 2021 is the next big ICC event this year after the World Test Championship final. New Zealand won the inaugural edition of the championship by beating India in the final. India have lost three ICC knockout games since 2017. They lost the final of the Champions Trophy, followed by the 2019 World Cup semi-final and recently the WTC final.

In the meantime, with the T20 World Cup coming up, India have a big pool of players to choose from. Ahead of the mega event many of these players have been selected in the three-match T20I series against Sri Lanka, which will follow a three-match ODI series as well. The three T20Is will be played between July 13-18, while the ODIs will follow between July 21-25. The series thus is one where many players would be required to prove their potential for a ticket to the T20 World Cup 2021.

In this article, we take a look at five players who might not get included in the T20 World Cup squad for the event later this year after the Sri Lanka tour.

5 Players Who Might Not Get Selected For T20 World Cup 2021

Sanju Samson

Samson made his international debut for India back in 2015. After that, he fell out of the competition and was recalled into the Indian T20I squad for the Bangladesh series at home. He was retained for the Australia series.

However, he failed to perform in the given opportunities and one fears that the talented youngster might not get selected in India’s T20 World Cup squad with many others vying for a similar role.

Also Read: England vs Sri Lanka 2021, 1st ODI: When And Where To Watch And Live Streaming Details

Ruturaj Gaikwad

Gaikwad produced impressive performances an opener for CSK late in IPL 2020 and then from the start of IPL 2021. However, with the presence of Shikhar Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw, and Devdutt Padikkal in the squad, Gaikwad will find it tough to break through it.

The youngster scored 204 runs in IPL 2020 and followed it up with 196 runs in the first seven games with two fifty-plus scores. His lack of hard-hitting ability might also make him run out of favor for a spot in the World Cup.

Kuldeep Yadav

Kuldeep is perhaps the most unfortunate among the players to miss out on a spot. He has been majorly benched by the Indian team in limited-overs cricket since the 2019 Cricket World Cup. In whatever little opportunities he got he has failed to impress Virat Kohli and the Indian selectors. Kohli and the management have backed Yuzvendra Chahal and Washington Sundar in T20Is as opposed to Kuldeep.

He also fell out of favor for his IPL franchise KKR. In 2020, he only played five games and he is yet to play his first in IPL 2021. He has his best years in Indian cricket and IPL between 2017 to 2019.

Manish Pandey

Being a middle-order batsman opportunities came few a far in between for Manish Pandey. He has been used as a substitute more than he has been required with the bat.

He has played 26 ODIs and 39 ODIs since making his international debut for India back in 2015. However, he is yet to make a performance of note in any of the formats. The likes of Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav have been making his life difficult in the middle-order.

Chetan Sakariya

Despite being young and a left-arm pace bowling option, Sakariya might not make it to the squad for the T20 World Cup. The Indian squad selected for the Sri Lanka series has some exciting prospects and Sakariya is one of them.

However with senior bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar around and seasoned campaigners in Deepak Chahar and Navdeep Saini, the youngster might find it difficult to make a case for himself. It will be interesting to see how many games he gets against Sri Lanka.

Also Read: England vs Sri Lanka 2021, 1st ODI- Match Preview