3 Dropped Players Who Might Never Make A Comeback To Indian Cricket Team
Jul 23, 2019 at 11:37 AM
The Indian national selection committee headed by MSK Prasad named the squads for the upcoming tour of West Indies. There were no surprises in any of the squads. The selectors did try out new names in white-ball cricket, but the new names did not come as a surprise.
Navdeep Saini was a new face in ODI and T20I squad while Rahul Chahar earned his maiden T20I call-up as well. Wriddhiman Saha made his much-awaited comeback to the Test side for the two matches.
Selectors did make some changes to squads, that saw few of the players being dropped. Here are three dropped players from the squad who might not able to make a comeback to the Indian team now –
Murali Vijay –
On the tour of England in 2018, Murali Vijay was the first-choice opener of India and was expected to play complete series, no matter his form. Scores of 20, 6, 0 and 0 saw him being dropped from the Test team and being replaced by Prithvi Shaw in the squad after the third Test. Later, he was ignored for the home series against West Indies but made a comeback for Australia tour.
A total of 49 runs in first two Tests saw him sit out again and now, he has been dropped from the squad. India now have a number of openers in the ranks and a comeback for Murali Vijay is not expected. He will have to score heavily in the upcoming domestic season to force a comeback now.
Parthiv Patel –
The absence of Wriddhiman Saha saw Patel make his comeback to the Test side for Australia tour as a backup for Rishabh Pant. The latter’s scintillating form on the tour saw Patel sit out in all the four matches. With Saha available for the upcoming series, Patel was expected to be dropped and he did not find a place in the squad.
A comeback for him is now a tough task as India have found the third wicketkeeper in form of Srikar Bharat, who was pretty close to selection as per chief selector MSK Prasad. Rishabh and Saha are two wicketkeepers for the tour of West Indies.
Dinesh Karthik –
Selectors seem to have moved ahead of Dinesh Karthik. The experienced batsman wasn’t included in any of the squads for West Indies tour, despite him not doing anything wrong in World Cup. Some might criticise him for innings against New Zealand, but it was a complete failure.
Just like Kedar Jadhav, Karthik could have been given another chance but it wasn’t the case. Shreyas Iyer and Manish Pandey will compete for a place in middle-order on the tour of West Indies.