Virat Kohli's India squad for T20 World Cup announced, MS Dhoni named team mentor; R Ashwin included

Team India squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup has been announced on Wednesday (September 8). Virat Kohli & Co.'s 15-man squad features the likes of Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, KL Rahul, etc. along with some other known faces whereas Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav missout. Surprisingly, Mahendra Singh Dhoni was named the team's mentor for the upcoming tournament

BCCI shared the news on its official Twitter handle and shared the entire squad, which is as follows:

SQUAD:

Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Ishan Kishan, Rahul Chahar, Varun Chakravarthy

Reserves:
Shreyas Iyer, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur

For the unversed, India will commence their campaign on October 24 by taking on arch-rival Pakistan at Dubai International cricket stadium.Previously, the arch-rivals met at the 2019 50-over World Cup in England, where India won against Pakistan and maintainedtheir unbeaten record in World Cups.

India's group, i.e. Group 2, comprises Pakistan, New Zealand, Afghanistan and two other teams who will join from the qualifiers.

The Men in Blue, who won the inaugural edition in 2007, will aim for their second title and first ICC title since 2013. The second and final leg of the IPL 2021 edition will serve as a perfect dress rehearsal for the Indian players who will feature in the marquee event.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) on August 17 announced the schedule of the Men's T20 World Cup 2021 as the high-octane event will get underway from 17 October. The final clash will be in Dubai on November 14 and a reserve day is also kept aside on November 15.