India T20 World Cup squad: 11 players unlucky to miss out

Sanju Samson was once again ignored on Monday as India's 15-man squad was named for the T20 World Cup in Australia. With the exception of Punjab Kings' Mayank Agarwal, the Rajasthan Royal captain is the only Indian captain of an IPL team who is not part of the squad.

But given the depth of talent in Indian cricket, Samson is only one of several cricketers who will be disappointed that they have been passed over. Following is a list of players who played starring roles for their teams in IPL 2022 earlier this year but who did not find mention either in the 15-man squad or in the four-man list of standbys.

Spin

Kuldeep Yadav - With 21 wickets at an economy of 8.43, the left arm chinaman bowler made a stunning return from the wilderness this year. He was the fifth highest wicket-taker in IPL 2022.

Yuzvendra Chahal was the only specialist spinner named in the Indian squad. Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel are the other bowling all-rounders rounding up the spin attack.

Pace

This is the department which has the most number of disappointed faces. While Umran Malik (22 wickets at 9.03) was the highest wicket-taker among Indian pacers in IPL 2022, he will have to bide his time. But some other more experienced pacers also missed out despite great performances this season.

Avesh Khan (18 wickets at 8.72), Khaleel Ahmed (16 wickets at 8.04), Umesh Yadav (16 wickets at 7.06) and Mohsin Khan (14 wickets at 5.96) were some of the top Indian pacers who will not feature in the World Cup. Shardul Thakur (15 wickets at 9.78) would also have been discussed had it not been for his poor performance this season.

All the six pacers named here have more wickets than two pacers picked in the World Cup squad - Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Arshdeep Singh. Jasprit Bumrah and Harshal Patel complete the pace quartet.

Batters

Openers Shubman Gill (483 runs at 132.32) and Shikhar Dhawan (460 runs at 122.66) and wicketkeeper Sanju Samson (458 runs at 146.79) were among the top five Indian run-getters in IPL 2022 but they still do not find a place in the World Cup squad.

Ishan Kishan (418 runs at 120.11) would be the other high-flier who might have expected an outside chance of a World Cup place.

India squad for ICC T20 World Cup: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya, R. Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh.

Standby players: Mohd. Shami, Shreyas Iyer, Ravi Bishnoi, Deepak Chahar.