One risk, zero surprises

When the national selectors named India's 15-man squad for the ICC World Twenty20 on Friday, there was two things in mind – stability and continuity. And the 3-0 sweep in Australia recently gave them enough reasons to justify whatever they felt was the right combination for the upcoming T20 series against Sri Lanka.

So, the five wise men decided to give India's tried and tested trio of Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh and Ashish Nehra one last time. Having youngsters like Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya would give escape route in case the game plan backfires. And, who is going to dispute the fact that margin between win or loss certainly is the thinnest in this format.

From the squad that toured Australia, Rishi Dhawan, Gurkeerat Singh Mann and Umesh Yadav have not been recalled.

Similarly, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin were the automatic choices.

The selectors, thus, decided to pick the same squad for both Asia Cup in Bangladesh and World T20.

The only surprise inclusion in the World Cup squad is uncapped young all-rounder Pawan Negi, who, the selectors said, was rewarded for his consistent performance in the domestic circuit. In the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, he took six wickets and scored 173 runs with a strike-rate of 173 for Delhi.

It has been learnt that the only topic of debate was who would find a spot between experienced Ajinkya Rahane and rookie Manish Pandey in the middle-order. The Karnataka batsman Pandey, who struck a match-winning maiden ODI century against Australia in the final match in Sydney, is Kohli's replacement for the Lanka series and his name figured prominently in discussion for the World T20. It's always known that Pandey would have to make way for Kohli once the Indian Test skipper returned from his much-deserved break.

The toss up was between Pandey and Rahane and the selectors finally opted for experience. Rahane is someone who can act as India's back-up opener while also landing stability to the middle-order. A similar faith was reposed on speedster Mohammed Shami despite his injury woes ahead of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who had a forgettable outing in Australia.

Shami's inclusion was a calculated risk by the selectors. Shami has still not proved his match fitness after suffering a hamstring injury before the start of the ODI series against Australia. Shami's last international outing was during the World Cup in 2015 before he was selected for the short Australia tour. He returned within a couple of days from Australia after suffering a hamstring injury before the start of the ODIs.

Shami still has couple of weeks to get match fit before flying out with Team India for the Asia Cup from February 24 to March 6.

Sandeep Patil, chairman of selectors, said the Bengal fast-bowler has been picked subject to fitness and should he fail to recover, India would be allowed to name a replacement.

"Shami has 30 days before the World T20. We have good time in our hands to take a call on Shami. He has been one of our best bowlers. For now, I can only say that he has recovered and started bowling," Patil said.

New comer Negi, who bowls left-arm spin and is a handy lower-order batsman, was part of the suspended Chennai Super Kings team in the IPL, captained by Dhoni.

"When selectors pick a team, we always give importance to domestic performance. It is not that we are only looking at seniors. We have looked at the performance, fitness and record of the domestic players as well. We have taken into account all their performances. It's not about just 15-16 guys, but all the domestic players. Negi is part of the Sri Lanka series and we have faith in his abilities," Patil said.

Patil said the team management had done its share of experimentation during the Australia tour.

"We experimented during Australia and discussed which players would be good for replacements. For the T20 format, where you won't get too much time, we discussed a few names. In the shorter format, horses for courses have worked," he said.

The selectors also named Indian women's squad for World T20, which will start from March 15. The selectors retained the squad that won a historic T20 series against Australia Down Under by 2-1 margin. The team will be captained by Mithali Raj.

SQUADS
Men: (for Asia Cup and World Twenty20): MS Dhoni (C), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravindra Jadeja , Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin, Harbhajan Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Ashish Nehra, Pawan Negi and Mohammed Shami

Women: (for World T20): Mithali Raj (C), Jhulan Goswami, Smriti Mandhana, Veda Krishnamurthy, Harmanpreet Kaur, Shikha Pandey, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Sushma Verma, Poonam Yadav, Vellaswamy Vanitha, Anuja Patil, Ekta Bisht, MD Thirushkamini, Deepti Sharma, Niranjana Nagarajan