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'Always delivers when it mattered most': Raina predicts Rohit Sharma's 'go-to guy' for India's T20 World Cup campaign
Suresh Raina predicted Rohit Sharma's ‘go-to guy’ for the upcoming T20 World Cup. India open their campaign against Pakistan in the Super 12 stage, in Melbourne on October 23.
With Jasprit Bumrah out of action, Team India will need someone to lead their bowling department in the upcoming T20 World Cup, scheduled to begin from October 16 in Australia. Mohammad Shami replaced the injured star in Rohit Sharma's squad and it looks like the team management decided to go for experience. The pacer hasn't featured in T20Is since the T20 World Cup, but played an important role in Gujarat Titans' IPL 2022 victory and also ended up as the tournament's sixth-highest wicket-taker with 20 scalps in 16 fixtures. But former player Suresh Raina feels that Bhuvneshwar Kumar is 'still the go-to guy' for Rohit because 'he always delivers'.
"Bhuvi is an experienced bowler. He has done really well. Sometimes you go for runs, but he still has that swing. He is still the go-to guy for the skipper because he always delivers when it mattered the most", Raina said.
"When Virat scored a hundred, he also took five wickets against Afghanistan and bowled really well. He has that knuckleball, swing and he hits areas well", he further added.
In 79 T20Is, Bhuvneshwar has taken 85 wickets, including two five-wicket hauls. India will begin their campaign against Pakistan in the Super 12 stage, in Melbourne on October 23. Besides Bumrah, India are also without Ravindra Jadeja and Deepak Chahar. Jadeja sustained a knee injury during this year's Asia Cup. Chahar was initially named in the reserves, but did not make it to Australia due to a back injury. India also have two warm-up matches remaining, against Australia on Monday and vs New Zealand on Wednesday.
Team India Squad: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammad Shami.
Standby Players: Mohammed Siraj, Shreyas Iyer, Ravi Bishnoi, Shardul Thakur.
