Former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra has slammed fake news regarding India’s squad for the 2027 ODI World Cup. Earlier, Chopra had criticised the incorrect news regarding Sachin Tendulkar, Irfan Pathan and Sunil Gavaskar’s squad for the ODI showpiece.

This time Chopra called out the news regarding Rahul Dravid’s squad. A post on social media claimed that Dravid has picked his playing XI for the ODI event. According to the post, Dravid picked Shubman Gill, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and Mohammed Shami in his final XI. However, Dravid has not picked such a squad at all.

“Rahul Dravid’s team is also here, which has Gill, Rohit, Virat, Shreyas, KL, Jaddu, Hardik, he has not included Axar, there is Kuldeep, Bumrah, Siraj, and Shami. Shami is there, but Bhuvi is not there. I read this, and there are many comments. People are saying the team is looking good but some are suggesting having Jaiswal instead of Shreyas. They have also said it is the best team of the World Cup made by him, without a doubt. Someone has also suggested including Bhuvi instead of Siraj. It is interesting but is this actually Rahul Dravid’s team? No, it is not. He has not picked a team at all. At least stop now, brother. You are caught in front of the stumps, plumb lbw,” Chopra said on his Instagram.

On the other hand, Dravid is hopeful that India qualifies for the WTC final, though he added that the team has fallen behind in the race for the summit clash.

“I’m hoping they do. It’ll be a great run if India can qualify for the WTC final from here. They’ve fallen behind a little bit, but the kind of quality that the Indian team has, you’re not going to write them off at any stage. They started off well against Sri Lanka, so that’s a good first step. Hopefully, they can keep the guys fit and not have a lot of injuries over the next few months,” Dravid said on JioStar.

India won the opening Test match against Sri Lanka by 165 runs.