Home›News›Mukund's 15-Man India Squad for 2027 ODI World Cup
2026-07-28By Gamezy Cricket Desk•8 min read
Mukund's 15-Man India Squad for 2027 ODI World Cup: Rohit In, Samson and Jaiswal Out
Former India opener Abhinav Mukund has published his 15-man India squad prediction for the 2027 ODI World Cup on ESPNCricinfo's YouTube channel, retaining Rohit Sharma on the strength of his Lord's hundred but leaving Sanju Samson, Yashasvi Jaiswal and a handful of other young batters out of the touring group.
#2027 ODI World Cup#India squad#Abhinav Mukund#Rohit Sharma
Former India opener Abhinav Mukund walked viewers through his 15-man India squad for the 2027 ODI World Cup on ESPNCricinfo's YouTube channel on 23 July, retaining Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli as the core of the batting order and leaving Sanju Samson, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Rinku Singh and Arshdeep Singh out of the touring party. The prediction lands seven days after India lost the ODI series 2-1 in England, with Gill's captaincy under fresh scrutiny and the standoff over Rohit's long-term ODI future unresolved.
None of Mukund's names are official selections, and the real squad is some way off. The 2027 ODI World Cup is scheduled for South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia, with the qualifier window opening only after the next ICC events calendar lands. What Mukund has done is capture a snapshot of how a senior India voice is reading the post-England picture, and which names he believes should still be first-choice when India arrive at that tournament. The full squad, the seven omissions, the reasoning behind the Rohit Sharma and Kuldeep Yadav calls, and what this means for fantasy cricket build-outs on Gamezy as the white-ball cycle resets are all laid out below.
The 15-man squad, role by role
The batting group is small and senior. Four specialist batters — captain Shubman Gill, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer — are the only frontline names in the top seven. Two wicketkeepers, KL Rahul and Ishan Kishan, give India the option of playing both as a bat-and-keep pair in the middle order, or splitting the gloves and the number-five role between them. Three all-rounders, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel and Washington Sundar, supply the fifth-bowler depth and the spin-hitting cushion that the 2023 ODI World Cup template demanded. One frontline spinner, Kuldeep Yadav, and five pace options — Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana and Gurnoor Brar — round out the fifteen.
The shape of the squad sits closer to the 2023 Ahmedabad final than to the more aggressive template India used to win the T20 World Cup in 2026. There is no dedicated powerplay pinch-hitter at the top, no Tilak Varma at four, no Rinku Singh finisher role. The trade-off shows up in the seam-bowling unit, where Mukund has effectively picked five frontline quicks and asked one of the all-rounders to share the fifth-bowler overs. It is a conservative, conditions-first read of what the South African surfaces will demand in late 2027, and the omissions list is the cost of that choice.
The Rohit Sharma call: one innings settles the question
The most-debated pick is Rohit Sharma, who has been at the centre of a public standoff with selectors since the Champions Trophy earlier this year. Mukund's reasoning is unusually specific. He pointed to Rohit's 137 at Lord's as the innings that answers the question. The Lord's hundred, in his reading, was not a one-off red-ball cameo but a statement that the 38-year-old remains India's best top-order option in the 50-over format when the conditions are difficult and the new ball is moving.
The case is not one-sided. India's selectors have spent the past few months weighing whether Rohit's recent white-ball form — particularly through the IPL 2026 cycle — justifies an automatic ODI spot, and the England series did not give a clean answer. He scored in patches, retired hurt once, and looked uncomfortable against the short ball at certain stages. Mukund's counter is that the format rewards peak match-winners, and that Rohit at 80 percent of his best is still a top-three ODI batter in this squad. Whether the selectors agree is the question the 2027 cycle will turn on.
The Kuldeep Yadav selection and the Lord's fallout
The Kuldeep Yadav call is the second headline decision. Mukund has named Kuldeep as the lone frontline wrist-spinner, a notable vote of confidence from a former India batter who has spent the past decade watching wrist-spinners move in and out of the ODI side. The decision lands in the middle of a louder argument about Kuldeep's role in England. He was dropped from the Lord's decider — a move publicly criticised by Ravichandran Ashwin and Hanuma Vihari — and has since signed with Yorkshire to keep his match practice sharp ahead of the next India window.
Mukund's reading is that the 2027 ODI World Cup surfaces in South Africa and Zimbabwe will reward a wrist-spinner who can bowl in the middle overs and pick up wickets against set batters, and that Kuldeep is the only Indian wrist-spinner with both the international track record and the tactical flexibility to play that role across 11 league matches. The Yorkshire signing is, in his framing, evidence that Kuldeep himself is preparing for the next India cycle rather than drifting into a domestic T20 league routine. Critics will point to Kuldeep's economy against left-handers and his recent one-day form, but Mukund has clearly placed a premium on wicket-taking over control.
The seven omissions, and why each name matters
The omissions list has drawn the most attention online, because it is where Mukund's reading of the post-England India group sits most clearly. Seven names who are widely considered part of India's white-ball depth chart are not in the 15: Sanju Samson, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh and Arshdeep Singh. Several of those omissions are defensible in isolation, but the pattern is striking. Five of the seven are top-order or middle-order batters aged 25 or younger; two are seam-bowling all-rounders.
For Sanju Samson, the omission is the most abrupt. He has been part of India's T20 conversation since the 2024 window, scored heavily through the 2026 T20 World Cup, and is widely considered the most natural fit for the Dhoni-style finisher role India has been chasing. Mukund's reasoning, implied rather than spelled out on the video, is that the 50-over format now runs on a two-keeper model (KL Rahul and Ishan Kishan), and that Samson does not displace either of them on batting merit. Jaiswal is a more familiar casualty: he has moved in and out of the ODI side since the 2023 World Cup, has not converted his Test-match form into the 50-over format, and is one of the players Mukund evidently believes needs a longer red-ball run before the ODI selection conversation turns his way.
The calls on Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh and Sooryavanshi all run on the same logic. Mukund's 15 is conservative on batting depth and aggressive on seam-bowling depth, and that trade-off does not leave room for a powerplay pinch-hitter (Abhishek), a left-handed middle-order anchor (Tilak), a death-overs finisher (Rinku) or a teenage top-order talent (Sooryavanshi). Each of those names is a defensible ODI pick in a different squad shape, but Mukund has chosen a different shape, and the omissions are the cost. Arshdeep Singh is the clearest seam-bowling omission, and the most interesting one. Mukund has instead gone with Harshit Rana, Gurnoor Brar and Prasidh Krishna — a closer reading of the hard-length, high-speed bowling that South African conditions will reward in late 2027.
What the squad says about India's white-ball direction
Taken together, Mukund's 15 is a vote of confidence in the 2023 template rather than the 2026 T20 one. The 50-over World Cup, in his reading, is still a format where you need senior batters at the top, two keeper-batters in the middle, and enough seam-bowling depth to absorb the loss of one or two quicks to injury or form. The high-ceiling T20 selections that defined the 2026 T20 World Cup win do not translate cleanly into a 50-over squad, and Mukund has not tried to force them in.
That is not a universally shared view. Several former India players have used the same window to argue that the in-form T20 players should be the ones to displace the seniors, not the other way around, and that Samson, Jaiswal and Abhishek Sharma are the future rather than the supporting cast. The argument cuts both ways. The 2023 ODI World Cup final was won on the back of senior batters and a frontline wrist-spinner; the 2026 T20 World Cup was won on impact players and a powerplay pinch-hitter. Mukund has placed his bet on the 2023 model. The selectors will give a verdict over the next 18 months, and that is what makes this prediction worth taking seriously.
What this means for fantasy cricket on Gamezy
The fantasy read of Mukund's list sits in two layers. The first is the immediate captaincy adjustment for the next India ODI window, whenever the official squad is named. Gill, Rohit, Kohli, Iyer, Hardik, KL Rahul, Kuldeep and Bumrah are the names fantasy users on Gamezy should have on their watchlist, because the bulk of the recent India ODI trophy runs and the bulk of the recent IPL 2026 captaincy data both favour that set. The second layer is the differential list. Ishan Kishan, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana and Gurnoor Brar are the four names to track but probably not yet select, because their ceiling in the ODI format is less established than the senior core.
For users building on the full set of India cricket players on Gamezy, Mukund's prediction is a useful starting filter for the 2027 ODI World Cup mega contests, but it is not a final answer. The selectors may choose differently, the players in the omissions list will play enough bilateral cricket to demand consideration, and the form cycle between now and the tournament will move the conversation more than any single expert prediction. What the Mukund video gives fantasy users is a clear read of how a senior India voice is thinking about the ODI build, and where the contested spots are likely to sit over the next 12 months. The players who end up in those contested spots are the ones worth tracking most carefully.
The open questions heading into the next selection window
Three questions will define the next India ODI cycle, and Mukund's squad is a useful frame for thinking through each. First, is Rohit Sharma still an automatic pick in the top three? The Lord's hundred helps his case, but the standoff will not be settled by a single innings. Second, who is the second wrist-spinner behind Kuldeep Yadav — a young domestic prospect, or an older all-rounder like Washington Sundar? Mukund has implicitly chosen the latter, but the selectors have been more open to a younger option. Third, is there space in the ODI side for a powerplay pinch-hitter like Abhishek Sharma or a finisher like Rinku Singh, or is the 2023 template too settled to dislodge?
Those three questions will be answered in the bilateral ODI fixtures India plays between the Asia Cup window and the start of the 2027 World Cup cycle. The Asia Cup, the home tours against West Indies and South Africa, and the away tour to Australia will all be selection checkpoints. Mukund's squad is the first clear prediction of how a senior voice thinks the answers should land. It will not be the last, and it will not be the official one. For now, it is the clearest roadmap Indian cricket followers have, and the most useful starting point for fantasy players building their long-term ODI watchlist on Gamezy.
What to watch next
The first concrete checkpoint is the BCCI's squad announcement for the Asia Cup window, expected in the second half of August. That announcement will show how close the selectors sit to Mukund's read, especially on the Rohit Sharma call and the Kuldeep Yadav inclusion. The second checkpoint is Kuldeep's Yorkshire stint, which begins next month and will give fantasy users a visible measure of his match readiness in English conditions. The third checkpoint is the India-A selection for the upcoming West Indies 'A' tour, which often signals the next tier of ODI talent and will tell us whether Mukund's omissions list or the official squad list is the better predictor of the 2027 cycle.
Source attribution: This report draws on the Yahoo Sports article published 23 July 2026 and syndicated from Cricket News / The Cricket News by Deepanjan Mitra, which carried Abhinav Mukund's 23 July 2026 ESPNCricinfo YouTube squad prediction and the verified India ODI series result in England. More cricket analysis is available on the Gamezy cricket news page.
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