Cricket World Cup: Rahul, Kishan in, Hardik vice-captain as India announce 15-man squad

Rohit Sharma will captain Team India in the Cricket World Cup 2023 as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced a 15-man squad on Tuesday.

Team India is currently in Sri Lanka playing in the Asia Cup. The World Cup squad's announcement was made in a press conference addressed by Rohit and BCCI's chief selector Ajit Agarkar in Pallekele.

The three players to miss out from the 18-member Asia Cup 2023 squad are Sanju Samson, Prasidh Krishna and Tilak Varma.

All-rounder Hardik Pandya has been named India's vice-captain in the 50-over World Cup squad that also includes KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, and Jasprit Bumrah, who are returning from long-term injuries. While Rahul has not played competitive cricket since sustaining an injury during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023, Iyer recently returned to action during India's Asia Cup game against Nepal.

Shubman Gill, who has been a regular member of the Indian team for some time now, will open with Rohit in the marquee tournament, which is scheduled to be played in Oct-Nov in India later this year. India's batting unit looks pretty strong, with Virat Kohli and Ishan Kishan in it as well.

It appeared to be a three-way tussle between Suryakumar Yadav, newcomer Tilak Varma and wicketkeeper-batter Samson for the backup middle-order slot, with the former winning the race. Along with Samson, the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal failed to make the cut for the ICC tournament.

Suryakumar, who is the top-ranked batter in the T20Is, has struggled to recreate the same impact in One-Day Internationals (ODIs) for a while now, having not scored a fifty in his last 18 innings. He has also donned multiple roles in India's middle-order in the absence of Rahul and Iyer recently with the team management looking to back the exciting batsman.

India's pace department will be led by their ace bowler Bumrah, who is joined by Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur apart from all-rounder Pandya. With batting depth being an area of concern for India in limited-overs cricket, Shardul seems to have edged out Karnataka fast bowler Krishna in India's final 15-man squad.

Although the last day to announce the provisional World Cup squad was on Tuesday (Sept. 5), the teams are free to make changes till Sept. 28. However, India's chief selector Agarkar has confirmed that they will not tweak the team unless there's an injury.

India's 15-man World Cup squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya (vc), Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav