The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on September 8 announced the 15-member Indian squad for the ICC T20 World Cup 2021, scheduled to be played in UAE and Oman. While cricket viewers were overjoyed about MS Dhoni's return to the Indian team as their mentor, a couple of exclusions left them confused.

Spinners Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav were dropped in favour of Rahul Chahar, Axar Patel, and Varun Chakravarthy in the squad which is going to be led by Virat Kohli and vice-captain Rohit Sharma. Responding to the exclusion, Chahal's wife Dhanashree Verma posted a cryptic message on one of her Instagram stories. The text (translated from Hindi) read, "Mother says, this time shall also pass. Live with your head held high. Talent and good deeds always support us. The thing is that - this time shall also pass. God is always great." Chief selector Chetan Sharma later mentioned during a virtual press meet the reasons behind picking Rahul Chahar over Yuzvendra Chahal.

"We had a discussion over Yuzvendera Chahal and the selectors thought was we need a bowler, who can bowl fast, and as we have recently seen Rahul Chahar bowling, the speed that he bowls with, the selectors thought that we need such a player, who can on those wickets, can hold and more speed, and so, there was a lot of discussion about Chahal, but we zeroed on Rahul Chahar," he said.

Indian squad for T20 World Cup 2021: Virat Kohli (Captain), Rohit Sharma (VC), KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Rahul Chahar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami.