Chetan Sharma’s national selection committee pulled a rabbit out of the hat when they brought back off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin into white-ball cricket while naming India’s 15-member squad for the T20 World Cup to be played from October 17 in the UAE and Oman. Ashwin’s inclusion was not the only surprise, as the BCCI drafted in former skipper MS Dhoni to mentor Virat Kohli’s men for the ICC event.

Iyer, Thakur on standby

The five-member selection committee also named three standby players—Shreyas Iyer, Deepak Chahar and Shardul Thakur. In a clear move to do away with wrist spinners Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav, the selectors went back to finger spinners in Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. Mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy, leggie Rahul Chahar and Axar Patel form the spin department. Sharma said Ashwin, who last played an ODI match during the 2017 tour to West Indies, got a look-in after offie Washington Sundar was ruled out due to an impending finger injury.