Barring injury, India shouldn't make changes to their T20 World Cup squad: Ajit Agarkar

Former Indian cricketer Ajit Agarkar believes that barring injury-forced changes, selectors should stick with the squad they’ve originally picked for the upcoming T20 World Cup.

Speaking on Star Sports, Agarkar said:

"In my opinion, once you have picked the squad for the World Cup, barring injury, I don’t think you should make any changes.”

A 15-member squad with three traveling reserves - Shreyas Iyer, Shardul Thakur and Deepak Chahar - was picked by the Chetan Sharma-led selection panel last month.

According to rules laid out by the ICC, T20 World Cup 2021 teams can makes changes to their squad by October 10th. With the IPL in full flow in the UAE, the performances of World Cup-bound players and noted cricketers like Yuzvendra Chahal, who have been overlooked for the WC, are being closely tracked by Team India fans.

With some of the selected players looking out of form and the likes of Chahal, Shreyas Iyer, Shardul Thakur and a few others making an impact in the IPL, fans have been asking the selectors to make changes to the squad.

"You got to show faith in people" - Ajit Agarkar on Team India squad for T20 World Cup

However, Agarkar believes Team India selectors and team-management need to back their originally picked players as it takes only one good knock or a spell for things to change. He is hopeful the likes of Suryakumar Yadav, Rahul Chahar and Ishan Kishan, who have been in woeful form, will regain their touch before the end of the 14th season.

The former seamer said:

"Yes, there are guys at the moment who are not in their great form, but it only takes one innings whether it's bowling or batting - to change that form around, and that could still happen before the end of the IPL.”

"So, if you think that’s the best 15 you’ve picked going to the World Cup, my personal opinion, I would stick with it, because you gotta show faith in people even when things are not looking so good, because things can turn around very quickly,” he added.

India will play a couple of warm-up games against England and Australia on October 18 and 20 respectively before they open their campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan on October 24 as per the ICC T20 World Cup schedule.