The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is yet to announce the squad for the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy in England but it has not stopped the cricket fans around the country to express their views on who should get a ticket for the showpiece event.
In an online poll conducted by The Hindu, highly-rated Mumbai Indians youngster Nitish Rana, who is arguably the best find of this Indian Premier League season, is one of the front-runners to be among the new faces for the Champions Trophy squad. Rana’s Delhi teammates Rishabh Pant and Gautam Gambhir have also been favoured by the readers to make it to the squad.
The ongoing season of the Indian Premier League is just entering its business phase but Rana has already left one and all impressed with his batting displays so far. One of the most consistent batsmen for Mumbai Indians this season, the 23-year old left-handed batsman has made an impressive 266 runs in 8 outings at an average of 38 and strike-rate of 135. After playing a match-winning knock of 50 against Kolkata Knight Riders, he proved his big-hitting potential with a 34-ball 62 run knock against Kings XI Punjab.
In the wicketkeeping department, the fans feel Risabh Pant should get the nod as a backup ‘keeper for MS Dhoni. The 19-year old Delhi youngster, who has scored 141 runs in 6 matches at a strike-rate of 161, left behind the likes of Dinesh Karthik, Wriddhiman Saha and Parthiv Patel with 31% votes. Second in the list was Karthik with only 13% votes which is really surprising considering the form he is in right now. The Tamil Nadu ace enjoyed a very fruitful domestic season, scoring 854 runs in 12 innings in the 50-over games. Karthik scored hundreds in the finals of the Vijay Hazare and Deodhar Trophy tournaments as Tamil Nadu won both the tournaments. In the IPL too, he is looking in good touch and has scored 190 runs in 8 matches with the help of one fifty.
Another important spot in the team that is up for grabs is the opening slot. KL Rahul has already ruled himself out of the tournament owing to a shoulder injury and fans feel that Shikhar Dhawan should open the innings in the 50-over tournament in England. Another name which is doing the rounds is that of Gautam Gambhir who is looking in sublime form in this IPL. The Kolkata Knight Riders skipper has already scored 305 runs in just 8 matches compared to Dhawan’s 235 runs in seven matches but majority of the votes went in the favour of the latter.
32 votes were cast in favour of Dhawan while Gambhir was second with 22. Another batsman vying for a recall is Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma. When asked who was most likely to make a comeback, both Rohit and Gambhir got the exact percentage of votes – around 18%.
Gujarat Lions skipper Suresh Raina, who is currently the leading run-getter this season, got 16% of the votes to make a comeback.