Will India add these 3 players to ICC T20 World Cup squad after successful IPL 2021?

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Dubai, October 7: With three days remaining to make changes to the squad for the ICC T20 World Cup 2021, India could be contemplating the addition of Shardul Thakur to the existing 15 members after the all-rounder produced a good effort for Chennai Super Kings in the IPL 2021, progressing at the UAE.

The selectors are concerned about the form of Hardik Pandya for Mumbai Indians in the IPL 2021 and he has not bowled a single over in the tournament yet. In fact, Hardik has bowled only a handful of overs once he returned to top-flight cricket after recovering from an injury.

India and all other teams in the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 have time till October 10 to make changes to the squad. Thakur is already a reserve member of the India squad along with Deepak Chahar and Shreyas Iyer and now he could get an elevation.

As of now, Thakur has taken 18 wickets from 14 matches at an economy of 8.5 and is the leading wicket-taker for the Chennai Super Kings.

In contrast, Hardik has made just 117 runs from 11 matches at a shade over 14 and his strike-rate too has nothing to write home about at 112.50, vastly inferior to his general IPL strike rate that hovers around 150.

''There is a case for the inclusion of someone like Shardul Thakur in the squad as Hardik is not seem to be on top of his game right now. At his best, he brings in a lot of balance to the squad with bat and ball but in the IPL 2021 Hardik has not shown and it remains a concern. Shardul is bowling well and of course he can bat well down the order as he has showed in the last few months. His addition will certainly boost the India squad," a source said.

Will there be more changes to the squad then? The question came up because players like Harshal Patel, Venkatesh Iyer etc are having a brilliant IPL 2021 for Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kolkata Knight Riders.

''There will be temptation to add players who are doing well at the moment in the IPL 2021 but we have to trust the squad that has been selected as a large scale rejig will not do the team any good ahead of an important tournament like World Cup,'' the source added.

India will start their journey in the T20 World Cup with two warm-up games against Australia and England before entering the tournament proper. India's first assignment is against arch-rival Pakistan and then the Virat Kohli-led side will face New Zealand and Afghanistan in the subsequent matches.

India had won the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007 under MS Dhoni, who will now be the mentor of the side in the latest edition of the event.

India's T20 World Cup 2021 squad: Virat Kohli (Capt), Rohit Sharma (vc), KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Rahul Chahar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohd Shami.

Standby players: Shreyas Iyer, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar.