India, Dec. 21 -- Going purely on merit and backed by cricketing logic, the Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee took some bold calls while naming a balanced 15-member squad that should start as favourites for the T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka from February 7 to March 8. The selectors who met at the BCCI headquarters here on Saturday dropped vice-captain Shubman Gill and keeper-batter Jitesh Sharma, recalling the in-form Ishan Kishan and finisher Rinku Singh. The squad will also feature in next month's five-game series at home against New Zealand, the final warm-up for the World Cup. To drop Gill, who is also the Test and ODI skipper, was not an easy call. Their decision shows the panel was honest to accept that it was poor judgement on their part to disturb the Abhishek Sharma-Sanju Samson opening combination by bringing in Gill as vice-captain. The panel has thus picked Axar Patel as Suryakumar Yadav's deputy while restoring the Abhishek-Samson partnership at the top. Current form and the team's approach were the criteria in picking the squad. It's not a judgement on Gill's T20 game but whether he is able to fit in considering the brand of cricket India want to play - attack from ball one. Samson and Abhishek are a natural fit for this high-risk approach. The selectors have not had any other consideration, simply choosing a team which stands the best chance to defend the title. The fear factor against a line-up with Ishan and Rinku is way more than one that had Gill and Jitesh. Ishan's selection is an equally bold call. He gives more firepower than Jitesh. On the strength of his exceptional showing in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy - he topped the batting charts with 517 runs, including a spectacular hundred in the final on Thursday - the 27-year-old Jharkhand player makes a return to international cricket after being out of the team since November 2023. The left-hand batter is a bit of a maverick, but on his day finishes the game. The selectors also had to take into account Surya's poor form. If Gill was picked, it would have become a case of carrying two batters who are out of form. The selectors have kept faith in Surya for his successful run as captain and for being a proven T20 batter - when he gets it right, he will start winning games again. That is the difference with Gill, who is yet to show he can be an explosive opener. India's batting template in T20s is to go for 200-plus scores. If the selectors needed any convincing, they saw that in Friday's T20I against South Africa at Ahmedabad where Samson and Abhishek made the difference with their 63-run partnership in 5.4 overs. Samson's success meant he will also keep wicket. And Rinku Singh is certainly a better bet as a finisher than Jitesh. Agarkar said Gill missed out due to the team they want to pick. "It's more to do with the combination we want to play, or what the team management is comfortable with playing," he said. "Their thoughts are... who's going to bat at the top? Abhishek, obviously, has done what he has done over the last year. And we felt the keeper at the top at this point gives us a lot more solidity than anywhere else to play different combinations. There are only 15 we could've picked, someone had to miss out and it's him (Gill). It's not because he's not a good player. These are the combinations the team management is looking for." Since coming into the T20 side this year, Gill has not scored a fifty in 15 innings at the top. He has 291 runs at a strike rate of 137.26. He missed the last T20I against South Africa with a foot injury while Samson grabbed his chance with a 22-ball 37. Surya, who himself has gone the entire year without a fifty, said Gill's form was not the issue. "It's just about the combination right now. We wanted to have a keeper at the top, and someone like Rinku or may be a Washington Sundar later on.That's why we brought in that extra keeper at the top. "And he's (Gill) a terrific player. The only thing is that the situation is such that we need a keeper at the top to have two-three good combinations which can win us the World Cup." On restoring Abhishek and Samson at the top, he said: "It's important to have a good start in T20. There are three phases in this format, the Powerplay, then you play 7 to 15 (overs) and then you go in the last 5 overs. So, we wanted to have that." The rest of the selection was as expected. Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana are the frontline fast bowlers, Hardik Pandya and Shivam Dube the seam-bowling allrounders and Surya, Tilak Varma and Rinku make up the power-packed middle order....