T20 World Cup squad: Chairman of Selectors Chetan Sharma reveals why Rahul Chahar was preferred over Yuzvendra Chahal

Out of a few surprises in Team India's squad for the upcoming ICC Men's T20 World Cup in the UAE and Oman, the one that shocked everyone was the exclusion of the leg-spinner Yuzevndra Chahal, who has been India's premier spin bowler in the white-ball formats in the last few years.

Leg-spinner Rahul Chahar was preferred over Chahal as the selection committee selected a total of five spin bowlers including Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel and Varun Chakravarthy while picking only three seam bowlers in Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 

Talking about the selection and why Chahal missed out, Chairman of Selectors Chetan Sharma said, "You want a spinner who can deliver with more speed. Recently we have seen Rahul Chahar bowling with speed. Our view was we need a spinner who can find the grip off the surface at a quicker speed and while we had a lot of discussion on Chahal, we eventually went with Rahul Chahar."

Not just Chahal, captain of India for the Sri Lanka tour Shikhar Dhawan was also left out of the squad while the likes of Deepak Chahar, Shreyas Iyer and Shardul Thakur were picked in the reserves.

Team India squad for ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2021 in UAE and Oman: Virat Kohli(c), Rohit Sharma(vc), KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant(w), Ishan Kishan(w), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Rahul Chahar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami.

Reserves: Shreyas Iyer, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur