NEW DELHI: India on Wednesday called in national legend M.S. Dhoni to act as team mentor for the Twenty20 World Cup starting next month.

The 40-year-old, who retired from international cricket last year, is India's most successful captain having won the World Cup, the inaugural T20 World Cup and the Champions Trophy.

Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Jay Shah said current captain Virat Kohli supported the move to have Dhoni with the side for the tournament in the United Arab Emirates and Oman.

"I spoke to him when I was in Dubai and he agreed to mentor the team," Shah said when announcing the World Cup squad.

"I spoke to the captain, the vice captain and coach Ravi Shastri and we came to this conclusion."

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Senior spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has been named in the 15-member squad that also includes additional spinner Varun Chakravarthy who only made his international T20 debut this year.

The World Cup runs from October 17 to November 14.

India squad

Virat Kohli (capt), Rohit Sharma (vice captain), KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Rahul Chahar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami

Standby players

Shreyas Iyer, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar