Former cricketer Virender Sehwag selected his India XI for the Twenty20 World Cup, however star all-rounder Hardik Pandya was left out.

There is less than a week till India's T20 World Cup squad is announced, and there are a lot of rumours on who will play and who won't. There is a lot of disagreement about who makes the final roster that BCCI head of selectors Ajit Agarkar, coach Rahul Dravid, and captain Rohit Sharma choose. However, selecting the 11 individuals from a great pool of players is expected to cause the team management more headaches than determining which 15 players would make the cut. Sehwag has finalised his Playing XI to help put things in perspective.

On the 'Club Prairie Fire' podcast, Sehwag was asked to identify his India starting XI. He said, without necessarily naming them in sequence, "Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant" before pausing and selecting 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."

The former opener has given an explanation for Pandya's exclusion from squad. “You asked me to pick my playing XI. Hardik will be there in the 15-man squad but not in the XI,” he said.

Virender Sehwag’s Playing XI (India) for ICC T20 World Cup 2024: Rohit Sharma (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Shivam Dube/Rinku Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah, Sandeep Sharma.