New Delhi: Legendary Indian opener Sunil Gavaskar feels that including pacer Deepak Chahar will be beneficial for the Rohit Sharma-led side in the T20 World Cup to be held in Australia in October-November.
Chahar, who had returned from a long injury layoff in the ODI tour of Zimbabwe in August, was named as fellow fast bowler Avesh Khan's replacement ahead of India's final match in Super Four stage of Asia Cup, going wicketless for 28 runs in his four overs.
Chahar featured in two of India's three matches on tour of Zimbabwe, picking five wickets, including 3/27 in his comeback match at Harare. He was named as one of the standbys in the Asia Cup squad and had travelled to Dubai with the Indian team for the tournament, where he was seen putting in the hard yards in practice sessions.
"I would say Deepak Chahar. He is the one I would certainly look at because it will be Australia and there will be extra bounce. And with the kind of movement that he generates with the new ball."
"He is somebody who's got to factor in if you know we've always picked about four-five bowlers for the Australia or South Africa tour and one of them gets wasted. But in a fast-paced tournament like the T20 I think to go with Deepak Chahar would be beneficial for the Indian team," said Gavaskar on India Today.
Further speaking in support of Chahar's inclusion in India's squad for T20 World Cup, former Indian batter Robin Uthappa remarked that he sees the Rajasthan pacer as well as young left-arm fast bowler Arshdeep Singh completing the pace department alongside Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah and Harshal Patel.
"He (Bhuvneshwar) will bowl three in the top six and then one in the middle or towards the death. But I feel so that we will have Harshal and Bumrah predominantly bowling in the death. And he will play maybe to the tail end or just before the death overs he will bowl that one over or in case you want a wicket in the middle overs."
"So, I think that's how they're going to use him. I think they will go with five fast bowlers anyways and I think Arshdeep and Deepak Chahar will be the other two outside of Bumrah, Bhuvi and Harshal. And Hardik (Pandya) plays as the sixth fast bowler," said Uthappa on ESPNCricinfo's T20 Timeout show.