The BCCI on Wednesday announced the Indian squad for the men's T20 World Cup that will be played in UAE and Oman in October-November. The Indian team will be mentored by former captain MS Dhoni.
Dhoni had been India's captain in 2007 when they won the title.
Dhoni, before the T20 World Cup, will be seen in action in the IPL in UAE as he will lead the Chennai Super Kings in the second half of the tournament. He has led the franchise to three IPL triumphs and is one of India's most decorated captains.
It is expected that Dhoni will help with his experience in devising near-perfect white ball strategies and also bring to the table the knowhow to win crucial ICC tournaments, which India have not won with Kohli as captain.
The former India captain, who also won the 2011 ODI World Cup, announced his international retirement in 2020 on 15 August. His last appearance in the India colours was at the 2019 ODI World Cup when India lost to New Zealand in the semi-final.
"Mr Mahendra Singh Dhoni will be joining Team India as mentor for the upcoming T20 World Cup. I am glad that MS has accepted BCCI's offer and he is keen to contribute to the national team once again. MS will work closely with Mr Ravi Shastri as well as other support staff to provide support and direction to Team India," said Jay Shah, secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to the media in a virtual interaction.
The T20 World Cup will be heled in across 4 venues — Muscat, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Sharjah.
The World Cup kicks off on 17 October with the qualifying rounds while India begin their campaign against Pakistan on 24 October. The final of the World Cup will be on 14 November.
The West Indies are the current defending champions.
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.
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