India added pace bowler Shardul Thakur to their Twenty20 World Cup squad while all-rounder Axar Patel dropped out of the 15-man side and into a list of stand-by players, the country's cricket board (BCCI) said in a statement on Wednesday.

Inaugural T20 World Cup champions India begin their bid for a second title in a Super 12 match in Dubai against arch-rivals Pakistan on Oct. 24.

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The tournament was scheduled to be held in India but the COVID-19 situation in the country forced organisers to shift it to the United Arab Emirates and Oman.

The squad:

Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Rahul Chahar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Shami.