India have announced their preliminary squad for the ODI World Cup 2023. Just like the Asia Cup 2023, Yuzvendra Chahal has been excluded from the ODI World Cup squad. The leg-spinner was excluded from the ongoing Asia Cup 2023 squad. Notably, the 31-year-old wasn’t named in the 17-player squad while he didn’t make it in the 15-player WC squad.
The fans aren’t happy with his exclusion from the team. The last WC he played was in the 2019, his debut ODI World Cup. Since then, he missed the T20 World Cup 2021, was part of the T20 World Cup 2022 but didn’t play a single game. Meanwhile, in this listicle, we will discuss three reasons why leaving out Chahal is not a good decision.
1. If seven batters can do the job, neither will the eighth
Chahal’s exclusion has been justified with the team’s balance. Apparently, the team needs a player at number eight who can bat and bowl as well to win games for the side. However, the down side for this theory is that if the team had a extremely bad day with the bad day, the number eight will become redundant.
2. India is thin on leg spin department
Talking about white-ball cricket, the importance of leg-spinners has increased in the last few years. India has only Kuldeep Yadav in the form of a leg-spinner. The likes of Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel are finger spinners and the trio are left-handed bowlers. This might turn out to be a wrong decision in a big game.
3. Some wickets might require three good spinners
During the WC, there might be some games that will see pitches being helpful for spinners. Quality spinners might be the way to go. Even though the likes of Yadav, Jadeja and Patel are good spinners, they might need Chahal for these games