Shardul vs Prasidh for extra pacer’s slot; focus on Rahul, Iyer fitness | Cricket News – Times of India
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Both players are likely to undergo trials if India opt for a 17-member roster for the Asia Cup, the announcement for which is scheduled for Monday.
The primary focus of deliberation, however, will revolve around the inclusion of KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer, senior batsmen who are striving to validate their fitness following thigh and back injuries, respectively.
The verdict from NCA’s sports science unit, led by Dr. Nitin Patel, will be instrumental in deciding their eligibility for selection.
In the event that one of the two players is deemed fit, the combined efforts of head coach Rahul Dravid and captain Rohit Sharma to stabilise the vulnerable middle-order will be somewhat alleviated. This ongoing concern has been the topic of much discussion lately.
Ajit Agarkar, the Chairman of selectors, is slated to reveal the squad on Monday afternoon. There remains a chance that a 15-member provisional squad for the World Cup might also be decided on the same day.
With the deadline for provisional squad being September 5, the BCCI might wait to announce its squad at a later date.
While there remains a school of thought that India should name the likely 15 to feature in the World Cup, the provision to select 17-member squads (as Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan did) gives them a chance to check-out all options before pruning it down to 15.
While Shardul, with 58 wickets, a half-century and a batting strike-rate of 106-plus from 38 ODIs, is expected to get the nod for his happy knack of picking crucial wickets, a fit-again Prasidh will remain in team management’s scheme of things.
It must be noted that Dravid had earmarked the lanky Bengaluru speedster back in 2021-22 as one who was supposed to regularly play 50-over cricket for India.
A lower back stress fracture did peg him back for close to a year but he did look fit and hungry during the first T20I against Ireland on Friday.
Spinners’ Conundrum
There will be five spinners in contention for the World Cup berth — wrist spinners Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal along with three finger spinners — left-arm orthodox Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel and off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin.
While Ashwin for his experience in Indian conditions should have been seriously considered, not being kept back for the West Indies ODIs does make one think if he actually can make it to the white ball squad.
Recently, Ashwin was playing red ball cricket in the TNCA league.
Kuldeep, on form and in terms of skill sets, is India’s No. 1 ODI spinner at the moment and an automatic choice.
So is Jadeja, who walks into any format because of his multi-dimensional skills.
With none of the top-order batters rolling their arm over, if Tilak Varma is not picked, then India won’t have a part-time spinner.
Thus instead of picking three specialist spinners and a part-timer, Indian selectors might have to go for four specialist spinners.
Axar has been carried in the ODI set-up for a while and it is unlikely that he would be dropped. At this point, he is ahead in pecking order compared to Yuzvendra Chahal.
(With PTI Inputs)
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