Considered as the Bible of Cricket, the Wisden magazine has made India's all-time T20I team but shocking left out the legendary and the World Cup-winning captain MS Dhoni's name in the list.
Despite plethora of achievements, India's former skipper failed to make it to the coveted list. Dhoni is easily among the best cricketers to have ever played for India. Beside being the best finisher in the world, Dhoni was also a wicketkeeper par excellence and turned around umpteen matches with his skills behind the stumps. Moreover, his tactical acumen and leadership skills make him an asset to any team that he is part of.
Meanwhile, India's another wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik was seen featuring in the list. Wisden claims that DK' recent comeback into the team helped him edge past Dhoni into the XI.
Wisden also compared Dhoni's batting strike rate with Dinesh Karthik at batting numbers 6 and 7 and statistically, Karthik's 150.31 was much better than Dhoni’s 121.15.
While the XI had Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli as openers, Surayakumar Yadav came in at number 3 in this team. Yuvraj Singh was slotted at number 5 followed by Hardik Pandya, Suresh Raina and Karthik. R Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah and Ashish Nehra completed India's bowling attack. Virender Sehwag was listed as the twelfth man.
While announcing the team on Tuesday night, Wisden wrote, “Choosing a team according to any standard is not easy. There is competition everywhere. It is not easy to compare the stars of the early years of this format with the players of today, who spend 2 months every year playing IPL. The biggest absence here is MS Dhoni, who has won India's only T20 World Cup”.
Meanwhile, Karthik would want to make the best use of the recent comeback into the team and guide India to a T20 World Cup triumph in Australia. He has been given the designated finisher's role and Rishabh Pant also in the XI, he has even been playing purely as a batter in some matches. India would hope that he can be in great form throughout the tournament and help the team to a historic feat.
Seven players of the team that went to play the T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia are included in this list of Wisden.
Wisden's All-time India T20I XI: Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Yuvraj Singh, Hardik Pandya, Suresh Raina, Dinesh Karthik (wicketkeeper), R Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, R Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Ashish Nehra.
12th Man: Virender Sehwag.
India's T20 World Cup squad: Rohit Sharma (capt), KL Rahul (vice-capt), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wk), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Hardik Pandya, R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh.
