India is supposed to play in two different continents at the same time in a couple of months. The first will be in England with the WTC finals followed by a lengthy England tour. The tour to England was decided longtime ago whereas Saurav Ganguly, suddenly sprang a surprise in one of the media briefing where he mentioned Indian touring Sri Lanka for a limited overs series. Just when we thought BCCI cannot function more haphazardly, the BCCI president proves that they can. Hence, there will be a need for selecting 2 Indian teams for both England and Sri Lanka. The Indian teams for England and Sri Lanka will be as different as chalk and cheese.
Indian team for England
The Indian team for England has already been announced. It is a jumbo squad of about 20 players with 4 reserves. Under the prevailing circumstances, this is only expected. Moreover, to get used to the pitch and the conditions, the team will have to play amongst themselves though I wonder why aren’t there any practise games with the counties? Surely, a couple of games could have been arranged before the WTC finals and a further 3-4 games during the England tour itself. Just like how it was done in Australia. It would have been ideal preparation. Alas, BCCI is not known to do things properly.
Presence of Umesh Yadav in the squad
The Indian team contains all the obvious names. However, I do wonder what has Umesh Yadav done to be in the squad in all the tours? Whenever given a chance, he hasn’t produced any unbelievable bowling. He may not be that capable but he must surely have been able to adequate to be considered but he hasn’t been. Umesh is 33 years old with not much cricket left in him. It has been 10 years since he made his debut as a raw quick. Back then, everyone in India were thrilled to have a bowler who can bowl consistently at 145KPH. India never had that luxury. Much was expected out of him but he has failed to deliver. 148 wickets at 30.54 in 48 tests in nothing to write about. However, his numbers in India is really exceptional. Probably it is time to consider him only for the home tests.
Absence of Kumar in the squad
Bhuvaneshwar Kumar will be the second name after Kohli in any team that tours England and New Zealand. His type of bowling suites those two conditions. Infact, his best in tests was in England. Added to his bowling, his ability to contribute with the bat will be invaluable. However, his name was missing when the team was announced. The reason being that he hasn’t played the longer format of the game for more than 2 years.
“The selectors think that he is still not fit to play long format especially on such a long tour,” said a source
Fair enough. Still, I would have certainly picked Kumar in the team. Afterall, it is a squad of 20 players and an additional player will not change anything. On the contrary, it would have given the team management to assess whether Kumar will be fit to play in the tests. He could have been part of the inter-squad matches which would have given him longer format practise.
New Zealand better prepared
New Zealand will play 2 tests against England before the WTC finals and will undoubtedly be better prepared. However, the Indian coaching staff is not too worried
“…Sometimes it can work in our favour as well, because that way you’re mentally more ready. It’s like playing with an injury. Sometimes when you’re injured, you tend to concentrate a little better. Sometimes when you’re a little under-prepared, you tend to focus more and maybe that will bring the best out of us as well, so that is the kind of mindset we are going in with.” Sridhar said.
I can only hope that he is spot on because New Zealand will be playing in conditions that they are familiar with whereas the Indians will be in alien condition and that too without any match practise. Not to mention the Covid induced quarantine.
Indian tour to Sri Lanka
With the entire first and second choice team members in England, the Indian team to Sri Lanka will certainly find a lot of players making their debut. Nonetheless, the team still promises to be strong for Sri Lanka who are in the middle of a bad phase. A whole host of experienced players are dropped for the limited overs series against Bangladesh. I do not expect this to change for the Indian series. Two completely newer teams will be playing against each other. The strength of the new-look Sri Lankan team will be known in that series. BCCI may wait till that series is finished to announce the squad.
The Indian team will likely to have experienced players in Dhawan, Hardik, Kumar & Manish Pandey. Kumar has been the standout bowler in limited overs. Even in the series against England, where everyone including the English bowlers went well over 6, Kumar shone with a bowling economy rate of less than 5. Though Dhawan made his debut a couple of years earlier than Kumar, I still think the captaincy must be given to Kumar for the short series. It will be a way of thanking for his services on the docile wickets of the sub-continent.
Prithvi Shaw, Krunal, the spin twins, Saini and a few others are likely to find a spot in the squad as will Surya Yadav, Ishan and Sanju. This team may be light in international experience but they are experienced enough for a Sri Lankan side that is struggling. Sri Lankan wickets are known to assist the slow bowlers and hence it will help to have both Kuldeep and Chahal in the playing eleven. I expect the Indian team to win all the games. This promises to be a good series but I expect India to prevail.
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