Today, the selection committee released a list of 18 players for the upcoming ODI series against England. The main talking point is the inclusion of 3 new players who could be in contention to making their ODI debut for the Men in Blue- Krunal Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav and Prasidh Krishna.
Suryakumar Yadav has been consistent in his batting for quite some time now and his selection has pleased many experts. His performance in the 4th T20 ensured that selectors do not overlook him at any cost even for the 50 over format. It will be interesting to see whether he gets a game because of the strong batting lineup India already possess in the ODI format.
Krunal Pandya was excellent in the recently concluded Vijay Hazare Trophy. The injury and uncertainty of Ravindra Jadeja’s injury has provided Krunal an excellent opportunity to prove his mettle in the upcoming series. The selectors have decided to go for Krunal instead of Axar Patel, which means an added responsibility on his shoulders to perform well.
Only some time back did Virat Kohli mention that Prasidh Krishna could be an ‘X Factor’ for India in the shorter format of the game. Such a statement coming from the Captain of the Indian cricket teams leaves us in no surprise over his inclusion in this ODI Squad. In 48 List A games, he has 81 wickets to his name at an average of 23.07.
Talking about some exclusions, the likes of Prithvi Shaw and Devdutt Paddikal would certainly be disappointed. They have been in their form of their lives in the Vijay Hazare Trophy and not even one of them making it to the Indian squad has raised some eyebrows, with Shubman Gill being preferred as the 3rd opener after Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan. Prithivi Shaw, became the first player in the history of the tournament to surpass 800 runs (he ended up scoring 827 runs) which included 3, 150+ scores (227*, 185* and 165). On the other hand, Devdutt Paddikal too scored a staggering 737 runs, ending as the second highest scorer in the tournament’s history.
Mohammed Siraj and Rishabh Pant would be the players to watch out for. Both have been picked on the basis of their recent test performances and it would be exciting to see how these guys perform. Rishabh Pant would be playing an ODI for India after a period of 14 months, whereas Siraj would be looking to cement his place in the ODI side too after having played just one ODI in the past. His figures were 10-0-76-0, which means he is still to pick his maiden ODI wicket.
Prior to this, India played an ODI series against Australia, and the players dropped are- Manish Pandey, Mayank Agarwal, Sanju Samson and Navdeep Saini. Players out due to injury are Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammed Shami, while Jasprit Bumrah has been excluded due to personal reasons.
Have a look at the squad picked for the tour of England
Virat Kohli (Captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), KL Rahul (wicket-keeper), Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Krunal Pandya, Washington Sundar, T Natarajan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Md. Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Shardul Thakur.
Written by: Aditya Paharia