India to face England, Australia in T20 WC warm-ups

India will take on England and Australia in T20 World Cup warm-up games before they kick off their World Cup title hunt against Pakistan on October 24. The Virat Kohli-led side will clash against England on October 18 before facing Australia on October 20. The 'Men in Blue' are placed in Group B alongside New Zealand, Pakistan, Afghanistan and two qualifying teams.

The Indian squad for the T20 World Cup has already been announced. Ravichandran Ashwin was drafted back into the Indian T20I side after a gap of over three years while veteran opener Shikhar Dhawan was left out. Also, Rahul Chahar replaced Yuzvendra Chahal as a specialist leg spinner. In another major call, BCCI hired former India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni as team India’s mentor for the marquee event. 

This is Virat Kohli’s final assignment with team India as T20I skipper as he will step down from his role after the showpiece event. Virat Kohli has not won an ICC trophy yet but given the conditions and strength of the India team, Kohli can hope to end his trophy drought in the upcoming World Cup.

India’s squad for T20 World Cup- 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, Mohammed Shami.

Standby Players– Shreyas Iyer, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar.

Team India’s complete schedule ICC T20 World Cup 2021:

24th October 2021: India vs Pakistan, 7:30 PM IST, Dubai

31st October 2021: India vs New Zealand, 7:30 PM IST, Dubai

3rd November 2021: India vs Afghanistan, 7:30 PM IST, Abu Dhabi

5th November 2021: India vs B1 (qualified team), 7:30 PM IST, Dubai

8th November 2021: India vs A2 (qualified team), 7:30 PM IST, Dubai