The Indian selectors were expected to dish out a squad for the upcoming ODI series in Sri Lanka, which would in all sense reiterate the team’s vision for the 2019 ICC World Cup. Fair to say, the 15 member touring party to Sri Lanka reflects just that, with some really tough decisions being taken by the Indian selectors. As many as seven changes were made to the team which recently won 3-1 in the Caribbean and did reasonably well.
The most highlighting news though was the omission of the veteran Yuvraj Singh, who was dropped for the upcoming ODI’s and T20I. With just 11 games since his comeback earlier this year, the selectors felt that Yuvraj, who currently is 35 years old, won’t remain fresh till the next World Cup and thus opted to invest in youngsters like Manish Pandey and KL Rahul.
Apart from Yuvraj, the members to not participate in the limited overs leg of the tour are Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin and the pace duo of Umesh Yadav and Mohammad Shami. This leaves the bowling a little vulnerable as all relatively inexperienced bowlers would comprise the list now, with Bhuvneshwar Kumar being the most experienced member of the lot.
A positive aspect in the squad was the inclusion of two wrist spinners in the form of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal. Kuldeep recently out bowled both Ashwin and Jadeja in the West Indies ODI series and was among the wickets throughout the four games. Thereby including him in the scheme of things is just a no brainer. Chahal’s inclusion is another bright aspect given he has churned out impressive performances for India A time and again.
Jadeja was replaced by a like for like candidate in the form of Axar Patel. To be fair to Patel, he still is India’s highest ranked bowler in the ICC ODI Bowler’s rankings and has always been a consistent performer. However, it has been his improved batting over the course of the last 12 months that has left everyone impressed as he had a fantastic 2017 IPL for the Kings XI Punjab.
Despite a strong squad being named, there remain a few questions in store. Firstly, at what position will KL Rahul bat, if the management looks to test him. Given the presence of Ajinkya Rahane as well, it’s safe to say that Rahul won’t be the backup opener. Skipper Virat Kohli has spoken on multiple occasions of Rahane being at his best as an opener and not in the middle order. So that leaves us to wonder where will Rahul bat.
There is bound to be some serious competition between Karnataka teammates Manish Pandey and KL Rahul for that number four slot, vacated by Yuvraj Singh. Pandey, who last played an ODI in October against New Zealand at Vizag, is likely to roll out at number four in the first ODI as his recent form for India A in the tri series in South Africa was phenomenal. Having won the Man of the Series in that series, Pandey can be expected to bat at four. Nevertheless, one cannot completely rule out Rahul’s chances at number 4 either, given the success he achieved for Royal Challengers Bangalore, batting at that position in the 2016 edition of IPL. The Pandey vs Rahul debate will surely be the most enticing aspect of the upcoming series.
MS Dhoni’s position becomes extremely important as well since he had moderate success in the Caribbean. The pressure is mounting on Dhoni too to perform and prove his class, now that he has been backed for the long run and his likeliest contemporaries in the form of Dinesh Karthik and Rishab Pant have been omitted from the squad.
The finishing department is to be taken care off by Kedar Jadhav and Hardik Pandya, two men who can galvanize the death overs to the core. To aid them, will now be Axar Patel batting at number 8 and given his batting skills being superior to that of Ravindra Jadeja in recent times, Patel can be expected to tonk the ball a fair distance as well.
The call up to Mumbai pacer Shardul Thakur is another noticeable inclusion as he is just the third frontline pacer of the team. India have opted for just three frontline pacers in Thakur, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah. This indicates that the men in blue will go for two pacers, two spinners and the all round skills of Hardik Pandya. This series will be an appropriate platform to test Hardik Pandya as a bowler, and that is what is being precisely thought in the Indian camp.
Coming to India’s ever magnificent top three, you don’t need superlatives to portray their class. In Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli, India by far have the greatest top three in world cricket at present, and all three are players who can single-handedly win you games more often than not.
In all, the squad reflects a sense of positivity and intense competition. The battle between Rahul and Pandey for that one slot will become the one to watch out for. However, another point to note would be if the spinners do well here, then what happens to the Jadeja- Ashwin combo, which has been a bit underwhelming in ODI’s?
India’s likely XI for first ODI:
- R. Sharma 2. S. Dhawan 3. V. Kohli (c) 4. M. Pandey 5. MS Dhoni (wk) 6. K. Jadhav 7. H. Pandya 8. A. Patel 9. B. Kumar 10. K. Yadav 11. J. Bumrah