India in ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2022: Predicted Playing XI, Team Preview, Key Players and Schedule

India have entered the final leg of their long-drawn preparations for the T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia. After completing their home T20I series against South Africa on Tuesday (October 4), Rohit Sharma and company will travel Down Under on Thursday for their week-long conditioning camp in Perth. 

While there, Rohit's men will have extensive net sessions to get used to the pace and the bounce that is unique to the Australian surfaces. The team will also take on a Western Australia representative side in a T20 game during this camp. 

India will travel to Brisbane after that for their two scheduled ICC warm-up games at another high-bounce venue - The Gabba. India will take on Australia in their first warm-up match on October 17 and then face New Zealand on October 19. 

All players part of the main T20 World Cup squad will be missing the ODI series against South Africa at home. Of those due to board the plane for Australia, only Deepak Chahar, Ravi Bishnoi and Shreyas Iyer, who are part of the reserves, have been picked for the three ICC Super League games. 

India have had an extended build-up to the T20 World Cup, playing most number of games among the prominent full-member nations. Since the arrival of coach Rahul Dravid last November, India played 34 T20Is, winning 26 of those. The team's only real setback has been the disappointing Super 4s stage exit from the Asia Cup 2022 in UAE. 

India's T20 World Cup history

Team News 

Ahead of the T20 World Cup, there was no bigger headache for the Indian team than the back injury to Jasprit Bumrah, the world's best fast-bowler. Bumrah was ruled out of the South Africa T20Is after complaining of back pain amidst fears that the pacer may have gone down with a lower-back stress fracture again. 

There was no official word from the BCCI on Bumrah's T20 World Cup participation but a TOI report had said the pacer will take another 3-4 weeks to recover from the "stress reaction" that was dictated by a set of scans at the NCA. As it turned out, the pacer's injury was too much of a risk for the management and he was ultimately officially ruled out of the tournament. 

Premier spin allrounder Ravindra Jadeja is sidelined after knee surgery. In his absence, the selectors have drafted a like-for-like replacement in Axar Patel. 

But there is no official word yet on Bumrah's replacement, with the selectors reportedly flying over Mohammad Shami and Mohammed Siraj to fill his big shoes. 

Reports are also doing the rounds that injured reserve quick Deepak Chahar has been ruled out of the T20 World Cup, too, and Shardul Thakur could be named his replacement among the standbys. 

A formal stamp of approval on the development is awaited from the BCCI. 

India squad for T20 World Cup 2022

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

Standby Players: Mohammad Shami, Shreyas Iyer, Ravi Bishnoi, Deepak Chahar

Predicted India Playing XI for T20 World Cup 2022: 

Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Harshal Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh

Key Players 

Suryakumar Yadav: Most in-form Indian batter heading into the T20 World Cup, Suryakumar's fortunes with the bat will dictate a lot of India's campaign. The attacking right-hander has been terrific with the bat in T20Is for India, scoring 1045 runs from 38 T20Is at an average of 38.70 and strike-rate of 176.81. 

Yuzvendra Chahal: On large outfields in Australia, India will need Chahal to turn a corner for himself after a sustained dip in the shortest format. India's lead spinner is heading into the T20 World Cup with an average of 30.97 and economy rate of 8.32 since the beginning of 2019. 

India at T20 World Cup 2022: Schedule, Date, Venues, Time

Opposition A2 and B1 will be determined via the preliminary round. Top 2 teams from each of the two Super 12 groups will qualify for the semifinals.