Axar, the spin-bowling all-rounder, will now join the list of standby players. It is the only change to India’s side named so far ahead of the 15 October deadline.
Thakur has played 22 T20Is for India and has 31 wickets to his name. Lately, he has emerged as a reliable batter lower down the order after twin fifties against England at The Oval. In the shortest format of the game, he is someone who can use the long handle of the bat, indicated by his strike of 197.14 in the five innings he has batted in T20Is.
In their release, BCCI also confirmed that Avesh Khan, Umran Malik, Harshal Patel, Lukman Meriwala, Venkatesh Iyer, Karn Sharma, Shahbaz Ahmed and K Gowtham would all be part of the bio-bubble to assist the squad in the preparations for the mega-event.
India squad: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Rahul Chahar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Shami
Stand-by players: Shreyas Iyer, Deepak Chahar, Axar Patel
