Ambati Rayudu troubles India with Hardik Pandya & Rishabh Pant removal from T20 World Cup team

Ambati Rayudu's predicted India T20 World Cup squad excludes Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant, and KL Rahul, opting for Dinesh Karthik as the sole wicketkeeper and including youngsters like Shivam Dube and Rinku Singh.

Ambati Rayudu, the former Indian cricketer provoked debate by dropping several popular names among them for the 2024 T20 World Cup Indian squad to be to held in USA and West Indies.

What appeared as a shocker is Rayudu picking Pandya and Pant, the Mumbai Indians captain and batter, among the other players. Pandya has been average IPL off so far, putting up a meagre total of 151 runs at a strike rate of 142.45 and taking only 4 wickets at 46.50.

Rayudu picked the Karthik over the young and highly prolific, Pant ignoring the wicket-keeping position as a whole. While 38 year-old Karthik is impressive for RCB, he has carried on his role with 251 runs at a phenomenal strike rate of 196.

The same goes to other younger stars, namely KL Rahul and Sanju Samson, who did not get a chance like Rayudu did, but chose to put players like Shivam Dube, Rinku Singh, Riyan Parag, and Yashasvi Jaiswal as the batter finishers.

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On the spin deptich of bowling, Rayudu is the one to bring back the duo of Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav. Dillie Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Mayank Yadav and the young pace sensation Mohammad made up the pace attack.

Rayudu's ballsy squad picks are definitely open to dispute, especially his or her decision to ignore Pandya and Pant in favour of some #green-horns unmanned. All the observers are yet to decide whether his picks were justified or not when the official World Cup squad of India is announced next month.