Former India spinner Harbhajan Singh was surprised to see the exclusion of Yuzvendra Chahal from the Indian squad for the upcoming ODI World Cup. On Tuesday, the BCCI announced the 15-member Indian team for the 50-over World Cup slated to take place in India. Apart from Chahal, veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin was also ignored from the squad. Harbhajan Singh was shocked to see the squad and took to his social media handle to express his disappointment.
"Surprised not to see Yuzvendra Chahal in the World Cup squad for Team India. pure Match winner," Harbhajan said.
India's young batter Tilak Varma, pacer Prasidh Krishna, and wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson are the other big names who failed to make a cut to the Indian squad. Rohit Sharma will be leading the side while the star all-rounder Hardik Pandya named as the vice-captain. Post the team selection, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma said that there were no surprise eliminations made in the team.
"There are no surprises and you can get only 15 in. Some of the guys will be disappointed. I have gone through it and I know how it feels. We have good all-round options and this is best 15 we could get," Sharma said.
"I have not thought about plans yet. Problem of plenty is a good problem to have. We have to see who is in form and who our opposition is. We need to see what the best possible combination could be. If someone misses out, then so be it. This keeps happening. You have to make tough calls for the team," he further added.
It has been a while since Chahal and Ashwin have been out of favour from the ODI squad. While Chahal is usually under consideration in the T20I format while Ashwin is a permanent name in the Test team.