Former Australia cricketer Simon Katich has been the latest addition to bandwagon of experts and veteran cricketers to pick their preferred Team India squad for the impending T20 World Cup which will begin from June 1 onwards in the West Indies and the USA. Katich reveals his squad as Indian cricket fraternity wait with baited breath for the official announcement by BCCI's selection committee of the final 15 for the ICC tournament.

Chief selector Ajit Agarkar already had an informal meeting with India captain Rohit Sharma on Sunday in New Delhi on the sidelines of the ongoing IPL 2024 tournament. The former India cricketer is speculated to sit with his selection committee colleagues and BCCI secretary Jay Shah in Ahmedabad to pick the final squad before the announcement is made on Wednesday.

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Ahead of the big call by the BCCI, Katich picked his likely 15 for the World Cup, which does comprise of a few surprises. While the most notable exclusions have been of Mohammed Siraj and Yuzvendra Chahal, he included two fast young uncapped fast bowlers in their stead, after being impressed with their IPL 2024 show.

“The final two spots, depending on how many quicks you want to play, I got two young pacers. I feel Mayank Yadav, who has been bowling rockets for LSG, is a must and another young bowler to look out for is Harshit Rana. He has been outstanding in the powerplay and good in the back end as well while showing pace variations,” he said on Star Sports.

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In eight games so far for Kolkata Knight Riders, Rana has picked 11 wickets at an economy rate of 9.79. Mayank, on the other hand, who impressed with his 150-plus deliveries, has played just three matches this season, for Lucknow Super Giants, where he picked five wickets at an economy rate of only 6, before being out with an injury. He is likely to make a return in the IPL 2024 game against Mumbai Indians in Lucknow on Tuesday.

The other big decision that the former KKR assistant coach took was picking Sanju Samson as the back-up wicketkeeper ahead of KL Rahul. Samson has scored 385 runs at a strike rate of 161 this season, the second-highest among Indian keeping options, after Risbabh Pant, while Rahul has managed 363 runs in eight games a strike rate of 143.47.

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Simon Katich's India squad for ICC T20 World Cup: Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Suryakumar Yadav, Rinku Singh, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube, Harshit Rana, Mayank Yadav

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