Irfan Pathan picks his ideal India XI for T20 World Cup; leaves out exciting youngster

Former all-rounder Irfan Pathan named his ideal Team India playing XI for the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia. He opted to omit prominent batter Rishabh Pant, instead choosing to name veteran Dinesh Karthik as the first-choice wicket-keeper.

India's preparations for the multi-nation tournament continued with a 2-2 series draw against South Africa. Leading the Men in Blue, Rishabh Pant was far from his best with the bat, earning the wrath of fans and pundits in the process.

The wicket-keeper batter also had a lukewarm IPL campaign and has struggled to crack the code in the shortest format of the game.

While Pant's fellow U-19 World Cup team member Ishan Kishan has been on the rise, Pathan stuck with the imperious top-order comprising Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, and Virat Kohli. The trio have a formidable record on the pacy and bouncy surfaces Down Under.

Explaining his reasoning behind the selection of the top-order, Pathan said on Star Sports:

“In Australia you need strong starts as the ball swings and seams. You require (a) player who has experience."

While acknowledging Kohli's poor returns with the bat of late, Pathan highlighted the former captain's success in Australia. He said:

“Kohli may not have performed well so far but in Australia he has scored a lot of runs."

The 33-year-old scored 341 runs in IPL 2022 and has been absent from the Indian squad in their last two assignments. He will next be seen in the Men in Blue's tour of England next month.

Suryakumar Yadav, who is currently recovering from an injury, was named at No.4 by Pathan. The in-form Hardik Pandya and Dinesh Karthik occupy the next two spots while Ravindra Jadeja at No.7 comes in as the last recognized batter.

Yuzvendra Chahal was named as the first-choice spinner after not being named in the previous edition. As far as the pace department is concerned, the former all-rounder went for a pace trio of Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Harshal Patel, who excelled in the home series against the Proteas.

Irfan Pathan India Playing XI for 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia

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

Apart from Rishabh Pant, the former all-rounder chose to exclude the likes of Shreyas Iyer and Mohammad Shami.