
Indian national selectors left many surprised when they announced the 15-man squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup, to be held in the UAE from October 17. While many regular members were included in the Virat Kohli-led squad, some notable omissions were Shikhar Dhawan, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, etc.
Chahal remains India's highest wicket-taker in the shortest format (63 scalps), however, he missed out and wasn't even named in the standby list owing to his indifferent or scratchy form in recent times. However, many were surprised that the selectors and team management preferred Axar Patel over him whereas Mumbai Indians' (MI) Rahul Chahar also got the nod, having played only 5 games for the Men in Blue.
The reason that the Chetan Sharma-led selection committeegave for preferring Chahar over Chahal was the difference in pace among the two bowlers. "Yuzvendra Chahal’s name was discussed. But we picked Rahul Chahar over Yuzi as we wanted someone who bowls fast and gets pace off the pitch. He also gets the ball to grip through the surface," Sharma was quoted as saying.
Chetan Sharma-led committee's statement didn't go down well among the ardent Indian cricket fans. After Royal Challengers Bangalore's (RCB) stunning 54-run win over Rohit Sharma-led Mumbai Indians (MI), in match 39 of IPL 2021 on Sunday (September 26), India's and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) veteran spinner Harbhajan Singh slammed the Indian selections for their remark and took a jibe at them. The 41-year-old took to social media to laud Chahal and tweeted "Did Chahal bowl fast or slow today guys ??? 4–0-11-3 what a spell champion@yuzi_chahal."
So far, Chahal has accounted for 5 scalps in RCB's three encounters in the ongoing second and final leg of IPL 14, in the UAE. Given that all the teams can still tweak their T20 WC squad till October 10, Chahal still has an outside chance to feature in the Kohli-led squad with few more notable performances in the UAE leg.