WTC Finals: Ravi Shastri Believes India Will Play 2 Spinners

The men in blue are all set to take over Australia in the WTC Finals. Half of the squad has already left for England, whereas the other half will join the squad after the IPL finals. The conditions in England are likely to be overcast and may provide additional help to the fast bowlers. However, in a bold prediction made by former coach, Ravi Shastri, he believes that the men in blue may include 2 spinners in their final playing 11 for the WTC Finals.

The WTC Finals will be played in the Oval from 7 June to 11 June. In case of rain, a reserve day has been kept handy by ICC. Ravi Shastri had a great stint with India and was even India’s coach when the team made it to the WTC Finals last time. Assessing the conditions, the former coach explained why India could use an extra spinner. Team India suffered a huge loss as wicket-keeper batter KL Rahul got ruled out of injury.

“You would want two spinners to play for sure,” says Ravi Shastri

“If the track is hard and dry, you would want two spinners to play for sure. I think it goes a lot with the weather in England. I believe it’s sunny now at the moment, but you know, English weather, how it can change in the month of June. So there’s a very good chance India will go with two spinners, two fast bowlers, and an all-rounder. That will be the combination. And then there’ll be five batsmen and the wicket-keeper, so six batsmen. At times in England, you need to slow it down as well. And suddenly it can get overcast,” Ravi Shastri said about the WTC Finals.

Ever since Rohit Sharma took over the captaincy duties from Virat Kohli, the opener has not led India in any overseas test. Therefore, the WTC Finals will be the first time Rohit will be India’s captain in an overseas test. Moreover, in the same conversation with Sanjana Ganeshan, Ravi Shastri mentioned the selection of Ajinkya Rahane. He added that Ajinkya Rahane’s selection was fair based on his domestic performance as well as IPL.

India’s WTC Finals squad:

Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Axar Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav Shardul Thakur, Mohammad Shami, Ajinkya Rahane, Ishan Kishan, KS Bharat (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Jaydev Unadkat.