Former Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has picked players for India’s 2027 ODI World Cup squad. Ashwin left out players like Washington Sundar and Rishabh Pant, but included Royal Challengers Bengaluru seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the squad.

Kumar was in prolific form in IPL 2026 for RCB as he scalped 28 wickets in 16 matches and played a key role in taking the franchise to glory.

Meanwhile, Rishabh Pant is currently not part of the ODI setup and his white-ball form is also not the greatest. Sundar is currently injured and has been replaced by Saransh Jain for Sri Lanka Tests.

On the other hand, Ashwin picked veteran batters like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in his squad. He also selected batters and wicket-keepers like KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan, and captain Shubman Gill.

Axar Patel and Hardik Pandya are Ashwin’s all-rounders in the squad. Furthermore, Kuldeep Yadav, who hasn’t been getting his chances in the recent past, is the main spinner. Jasprit Bumrah will lead the attack for Ashwin whereas Mohammed Siraj and Harshit Rana are the other two pacers.

Ashwin has put players like Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Varun Chakravarthy, Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh and Prasidh Krishna in the ‘may be’ category.

Ashwin believes India would need the services of Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the South African conditions.

“Bhuvneshwar Kumar is a yes. I would communicate to him. Get him to play all the tournaments, first-class, Vijay Hazare, everything, and get him prime going to South Africa. I think we will need him there,” he said on ESPN Cricinfo.

The ODI World Cup 2027 will be co-hosted by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia.