Sanjay Manjrekar includes Yuzvendra Chahal in India's 2023 World Cup squad; leaves out Shardul Thakur

Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar made a couple of interesting choices while naming his 15-member India squad on Star Sports for the ODI World Cup to be played in October-November

He believes India should take young Tilak Varma in their squad for the Asia Cup, probably because of a left-hand option in the middle order and the off-spin option the youngster gives. Manjrekar has backed veteran leg spinner Yuzvendra Chahal in his squad and has added Arshdeep Singh as a potential backup pacer.

However, quite a few eyebrows might be raised on knowing that Sanjay Manjrekar left out the likes of Ishan Kishan and Shardul Thakur. This gives the squad a lack of options regarding a backup wicketkeeper and backup to all-rounders like Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja.

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Manjrekar's India squad for the World Cup: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Tilak Varma, KL Rahul, (wk), Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh and Yuzvendra Chahal.

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Sanjay Manjrekar on Hardik Pandya's importance

With the World Cup to be played in India, Sanjay Manjrekar feels Hardik Pandya's importance to the Indian team will be as much with the ball as it is with the bat. He expects the all-rounder to bowl quite a few overs in each match and ensure that he is at the top of his game.

On this, Manjrekar stated:

"Hardik Pandya's form is a bit of a concern. He has to do a lot of heavy work at the World Cup. You need him as an all-rounder and not just as a batter. So you need at least 6-7 overs per game. When India won the 2011 World Cup, it was because of people like Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina being the batters who could bowl."

The cut-off date to announce the preliminary World Cup squad is September 5.