T20 World Cup 2022: Right vs Left Handed Best Playing 11 for Team India

Rohit Sharma and Rishabh Pant to lead as we look at the best possible right-handed vs left-handed playing 11 for Team India for T20 World Cup 2022. 

There was a time when Team India was filled with left-handed match-winners like Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Zaheer Khan, Irfan Pathan, Ashish Nehra, etc.; all at once in the same playing 11. But the same cannot be said in 2022, where the current T20 team is maximum filled with right-handers; be it in batting or bowling.   

If we look at some of the best T20 players of the current Indian Team, almost all players either bat or bowl right-handed; of course except for a few exceptions. But for a successful team, a mix of opposite-handed players is important. It isn’t an encouraging sight for a country that has immense potential when it comes to producing quality players.

The 2022 T20 World Cup is hardly a few months away, and the Management of the Indian Team is currently busy evaluating the pool of 25-30 players before they eventually boil down to a list of 15 players with 3 backups. These 25-30 potential players contain both Right-handed as well as Left-handed players.

So, how about we do an interesting analysis and find out the best possible Right-handed vs Left-handed playing 11 for Team India for T20 World Cup. Important to note – for selecting the best players, we will look at the probability of Indian team selection, seniority level, and T20 stats from the last 3 years.

Openers:

Team Right-handed: Rohit Sharma & KL Rahul 

Team Left-handed: Shikhar Dhawan & Ishan Kishan 

Talking about the two best Right-handed and Left-handed openers, we have Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul for Team RH and Shikhar Dhawan and Ishan Kishan for Team LH. The pair of RO and KL is undoubtedly the best opening pair for Team India in T20Is. Whereas Ishan Kishan is the best backup opener for Team India and Shikhar Dhawan is the best-performing lefty in the last few years in T20s. 

Of these 4 players, RO, KL, and Kishan are definitely the top priority when it comes to selection for the 2022 T20 World Cup. However, the same cannot be said about Shikhar Dhawan, whose age seems to be going against him. Apart from these 3, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Rahul Tripathi are mostly looked at as backups openers.

Middle-order:

Team Right-handed: Virat Kohli, Surykumar Yadav & Hardik Pandya 

Team Left-handed: Nitish Rana, Rishabh Pant & Venkatesh Iyer 

Middle-order is the position where Team India have a lot of quality Right handers. Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, and Hardik Pandya are all sure-shot contenders for the first-choice playing 11 for T20 World Cup 2022. If India play RO and KL as openers and with middle-order as defined above, all 5 players shall be Right-handed with Dinesh Karthik another right hander to follow.

Coming to Team LH, it doesn’t look inspiring with Rishabh Pant being the only experienced player. He seems to only potential candidate for the 2022 T20 World Cup. However, Pant’s current T20 form is a big worry, and that could go against him if Team India prefer Kishan and DK above him for the Wicket-keeper slot.

Meanwhile, Nitish Rana and Venkatesh Iyer are decent players who are yet to make a significant impact. Unfortunately, we don’t have any other experienced Left-handed middle-order players in India at the moment. The likes of Tilak Varma, Abhishek Sharma, Devdutt Padikkal, Yashasvi Jaiswal, etc. are young, and need a few more years before national team consideration.

Lower-order:

Team Right-handed: Dinesh Karthik & Shardul Thakur 

Team Left-handed: Ravindra Jadeja & Axar Patel 

Coming to the lower-order, this is an area where Team India don’t have a good second right-handed all-rounder. Hardik Pandya seems to only good name in the category with Shardul Thakur being the other name. But in Team LH, both Jadeja and Axar are established names. While Jadeja will be the first-choice all-rounder alongside Hardik, Axar forms for a good backup all-rounder. 

Meanwhile, Dinesh Karthik’s current form as the finisher makes him the best candidate for the number 6 or 7 position. His form could mean India play him ahead of Rishabh Pant as a finisher; thus keeping another Left-hander outside the playing 11. If the strongest batting-order for T20 WC 2022 goes by, India could play all Right-handers until 6.

Bowlers:

Team Right-handed: Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel & Yuzvendra Chahal

Team Left-handed: Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Khaleel Ahmed & T Natarajan

Coming to Team RH for the bowlers, it is once again filled with 4 bowlers who would be the first-choice contenders for Team India for T20 World Cup 2022. Harshal Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, and Yuzvendra Chahal are going through a dream patch at the moment. They could be an asset going into the World Cup. They form the dream pair for Team India with Mohammed Shami, Umran Malik and Avesh Khan as backups. 

Meanwhile, there aren’t many experienced left-handed bowlers in the country. Arshdeep Singh seems the only left-handed pacer who is playing for the country. Whereas Kuldeep Yadav seems the only spinner. Apart from these two, Khaleel Ahmed and T Natarajan seem the best available options. However, both are not in contention for T20 World Cup 2022 at the moment.

T20 World Cup 2022: Best Possible Right-handed Playing 11 for Team India:

Rohit Sharma (C), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik (WK), Shardul Thakur, Harshal Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah & Yuzvendra Chahal 

T20 World Cup 2022: Best Possible Left-handed Playing 11 for Team India:

Ishan Kishan, Shikhar Dhawan, Nitish Rana, Rishabh Pant (C&WK), Venkatesh Iyer, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Khaleel Ahmed & T Natarajan. 

So, that completes the best possible Right-handed vs Left-handed playing 11 for Team India for T20 World Cup 2022. Apart from the 22 names mentioned above, the likes of Shreyas Iyer, Ravi Bishnoi, Deepak Hooda, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sanju Samson, Umran Malik, Mohammed Shami, Deepak Chahar, etc., shall be in contention for T20 World Cup 2022. 

Thanks for reading! What’s your favourite playing 11 for Team India for T20 World Cup 2022? Please email your thoughts to business@cricalytics.com.

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Adesh Kothari

Adesh Kothari is the founder of AK4Tsay1 Cricalytics with over 20 years of experience following Cricket.

Cricket to him is like what Football is to Lionel Messi, Singing is to Lata Mangeshkar, Dancing is to Michael Jackson, and Acting is to Clint Eastwood.

Besides his effervescent love for Cricket, Adesh is an MBA by qualification.