Hardik Pandya axed, replaced by Shivam Dube, Rinku Singh in India's T20 World Cup Playing XI selected by Virender Sehwag

Virender Sehwag has picked a highly-debated Indian Playing XI for the T20 World Cup.

Who's in, who's not? Who gets the ticket to the USA, who faces the axe? Some of these burning questions are expected to be answered over the next week or so, when the BCCI selectors announce Team India's squad of 15 for the T20 World Cup 2024. Although no official date is fixed yet, the deadline for cricket boards to reveal the line-up is May 1. Hence, expect the squad that will travel to the USA and West Indies to be out soon.

Who all make it to the list finalised by captain Rohit Sharma, coach Rahul Dravid and BCCI chairman of selector Ajit Agarkar is a matter of hot debate. But irrespective of the 15 that will make the cut, picking the 11 from a talented pool of players promises to be a bigger headache for the team management. To help provide some perspective, former India opener Virender Sehwag has finalised his Playing XI, which shockingly has no place reserved for Hardik Pandya.

When asked to name his India starting XI on the 'Club Prairie Fire' podcast, Sehwag, not necessarily order-wise, began by saying: "Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant" before taking a pause and naming one of Rinku Singh and Shivam Dube at No. 6. "Rinku Singh or Shivam Dube – one of these two – Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Sandeep Sharma, Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja."

While Sehwag did not reveal the reason behind leaving Hardik out, he did point out that while the Mumbai Indians captain will certainly be part of the overall squad, seeing see him make it to the XI remains a brave call. "He [Hardik] should be in the 15, but if you're asking Playing XI, right?"

However, Sehwag's exclusion of Hardik is believable and makes for a solid case in point. Expected to be the apple of Mumbai Indians' eye on his return to the franchise, Hardik has had a torrid IPL 2024 campaign. Forget his results as captain – three wins from eight matches – Hardik has been nothing more than a pale shadow of his once formidable self. With 151 runs from eight innings, Hardik's batting has cut a sorry figure, while with the ball, he has just 4 wickets to show for his efforts at a concerning economy rate of 10.94. Hardik has opened the bowling in six out of the eight games played by MI and not once has it yielded the desired outcome.