4 players who don't fit in the current Indian T20 squad

Twenty20 cricket is a fast-paced game, which demands some hard-hitting and aggressive approach. In the past, players like Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, and Suresh Raina are some of the hardest hitters to have played for India. Currently, the Indian T20 team is in their most prominent form, demolishing all their opponents.

Based on the current form, Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh have failed to retain their place in the T20 squad. The Indian selectors are finding it hard to replace two of the phenomenal T20 cricketers.

The selecting committee has tried a bunch of lads for this format but playing consistently in T20 cricket at the international level is not everyone’s cup of tea. Here we take a look at four such players in the current Indian T20 squad who are not tailor-made for the format.

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#1 Manish Pandey

Manish Pandey is not meant for the T20 format of the game

Considering his nature of batting, Manish Pandey is a player who takes some time to initially set his eyes on the ball before going hard. But, T20 cricket is a format which demands a middle-order batsman to get into his stride quickly, which is definitely not his natural way of batting.

Manish Pandey made his T20 debut in the year 2015 against Zimbabwe as the 52nd T20 player for India. Until now, Pandey has played 26 international T20s in which he has scored 538 runs at an average of 41.38. So far he has scored 2 half centuries but his strike rate of just 122.83 is quite below par for a no.4 or no.5 batsman in T20s.

No doubt, Manish Pandey has the calibre to become India’s best batsman, but currently, with his form on the wrong side, he doesn’t fit in the Indian T20 squad.

#2 Shreyas Iyer

Shreyas Iyer

Shreyas Iyer has had a very attractive domestic career which earned him the national call for both ODIs and T20s. However, he hasn’t been in a promising form after getting his Indian Jersey. He has so far just played 12 international matches in his career.

Shreyas Iyer played the international T20 for India for the first time on 1 November 2017 against the mighty New Zealand side. From November 2017 to December 2018, he has just played six T20 matches for India. He hasn’t done anything great so far which can cement his place in the T20 squad for a long period.

Iyer has scored runs at a very low average of 16.60 which totals up to 83 runs in 6 matches. He is far away from being called the future of India as his highest score is just 24 runs. So considering his T20 record, Shreyas Iyer is a player who doesn’t fit in the current Indian T20 squad.

#3 Axar Patel

Axar Patel can prove to be worthy for India in ODIs.

The Indian team has been quite lucky about having quality spinners in the squad. The legacy of the dominance of spinners started from Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble. Later on, it was transferred to Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin. Kuldeep Yadav and Chahal do the job right now.

During this time period, various spinners emerged but were not up to the mark and Axar Patel is one of them. Axar Patel has a very poor bowling average when it comes to T20I. So far, Axar has bowled 234 balls in his T20I career out of which only nine succeeded in getting him a wicket.

His batting performance has also not been great as he had just scored 68 runs from 11 matches at an average of 17. Hence, considering his T20 form, he is a player who is not meant for the current Indian T20 squad.

#4 Mahendra Singh Dhoni

The time has arrived now for MS Dhoni to retire from T20 cricket

MS Dhoni is a cricketer who is well past his prime and one can expect him to retire from T20 cricket any time. MS Dhoni's current form with the bat has drawn a lot of criticism from the fans and with Rishabh Pant possibly being considered as India's next wicketkeeping batsman, MS Dhoni certainly looks like a misfit in the team.

Nicknamed as Captain Cool, Dhoni has played a total of 93 international T20s for India with his highest score of just 56. Referring to the last two T20I series played by India, he had been dropped pertaining to his poor form in this format. Undoubtedly, MS Dhoni, currently, is the world's best wicketkeeper but the same cannot be said of the Ranchi boy's batting skills.