BCCI has announced Team India for the Asia Cup. A 17-member squad has been selected under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma. Sanju Samson will go to Sri Lanka as the backup wicketkeeper, as KL Rahul, who is in the team, is still not fully recovered from injury. If Rahul is ruled out of the tournament, Samson will be included in the squad in his place.
If Rahul is not fully fit then why was the risk of selecting him in the team taken? If Shreyas Iyer, who is batting at number-4 position, is fit, then why are there 2-2 players at his position? Most of the pitches in Sri Lanka favor spinners, yet there is not a single leg-spinner and off-spinner in the team. 6 pacers were also kept in the team, but there is not a single left arm pacer in them.
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Chief selector Ajit Agarkar said that KL Rahul is not fully fit and could miss the opening matches of the Asia Cup. He bats at number-5 in ODIs, if Rahul does not play then Ishaan Kishan will get a chance in his place.
Ishaan Kishan scored 3 fifties in the last 3 innings, he also has a double century. Although he scored this score while opening, while if Rahul does not play, then Ishaan will have to come at number-5, where he has not yet batted in ODIs. He played 6 innings at number-4, but could only score 106 runs at an average of 21.20. That is, he is weak at the middle order position.
Sanju Samson is the backup wicketkeeper, who landed from number-4 to number-6 10 times out of 13 ODIs for India. In this, he scored 335 runs at an average of 67, including 3 fifty. While batting twice at number-3, he could only score 55 runs at an average of 27.50. That is, Samson is strong in the middle-order from number-4 to number-6 position.
KL Rahul does not play, the team will include Ishaan in the playing-11. If the team gets them to open, then Shubman, Rohit, Virat and Shreyas will have to change their positions. If Ishaan lands at number-5, then the middle-order will be weak, because he has not been able to score many runs at this position, but if Samson had been in the team, he would have come at number-5 only and the team would not have had problems. That is, Samson would have given more balance in the playing-11 than Ishaan.
Before the team selection, the issue of player batting at number-4 position was the hottest as Shreyas Iyer was not fit. That is why the team gave chances to Suryakumar Yadav and Sanju Samson.
Shreyas Iyer has scored 805 runs in 20 innings for India at the number-4 position at an average of 47.35. Captain Rohit has also said that Shreyas is the first choice of the team at number-4. Now Shreyas is fully fit then why both Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Verma have been selected in the team to bat at number-4 position?
Suryakumar Yadav is a great T20 batsman, but his performance in ODIs was disappointing. At number-4 position, he could score only 30 runs in 5 innings at an average of 6. He also batted at number-7 position in the middle order, but he could only score 458 runs in 22 innings at an average of 22.90. The team management and Suryakumar himself have accepted that he is not ready for the ODI format. Despite this, he was selected, that too when the team had a better option for batting in the middle order in the form of Samson.
Tilak Verma Regarding the selection of Tilak Verma, Agarkar said that he wants to try the left hand batter in the team. Tilak is yet to make his ODI debut, but showed his potential in T20Is against the West Indies. Tilak also does off-spin bowling, so his selection is logical, but when Shreyas is there, how will the team keep him in the playing-11 and even if Tilak comes in the playing-11, at what position will he bat and at whom? Will you take the place?
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Pakistan There are 5 left hand batters in Pakistan's Asia Cup team, out of which 2 are batting in top-3 position only. Sri Lanka and Bangladesh also have almost the same number of left hand batsmen. Left-handed batsmen have trouble against off-spinners, these batsmen play spinners like Jadeja-Akshar easily. Despite this, there is not a single full time off-spinner in Team India.
R Ashwin On the question of including off-spinners like R Ashwin and Washington Sundar, captain Rohit said that the team was looking for extra batting. That is why Akshar Patel has been selected, but both Ashwin and Sundar also do batting with off-spin bowling. Also, Akshar and Jadeja do similar spin bowling. In most of the matches, only one of the two will play and on the basis of experience, Jadeja will bat. In such a situation, Akshar will be seen sitting on the bench. If Akshar will remain on the bench then why Ashwin or Sundar were not picked in his place.
Yuzvendra Chahal was a part of Team India for a long time, but he was also not selected in the team. Batters of any team have trouble against leg-spinners, yet Team India neither kept Chahal nor included any other leg-spinner. The team definitely has a wrist spinner in the form of Kuldeep Yadav, but on Sri Lankan spin pitches, including 4 spinners would have been a better option than including 6 pacers.
Team India also has 2 seam bowling all-rounders along with 4 full time pacers. That is, the team selected 6 pacers for Sri Lanka's spin pitches, but there is not a single left arm pacer in them. Jasprit Bumrah, the legendary Krishna, Mohammed Siraj, Mohammed Shami, Shardul Thakur and Hardik Pandya are all excellent fast bowlers but all bowl straight arm.
Jaidev Unadkat and Arshdeep Singh Team India gave opportunities to Jaydev Unadkat and Arshdeep Singh at the international level. Unadkat and Arshdeep could play only 3 ODIs. Team India has been giving opportunities to both of them for the last 12 months, but after January 2019, the team did not pay much attention to the left arm pacers anyway. From 2019, Khaleel Ahmed 5, Thangarasu Natarajan 2 and Chetan Sakariya could also play only 2 ODIs for India in left arm pacers.
Left Arm Fast Bowler Left arm pacers always create trouble against the Indian batsmen. The team understands their importance, yet the team has not paid attention to preparing any left arm pacer apart from Arshdeep and Unadkat.
Ignore This The result of this neglect was that the team will go to the Asia Cup without the left arm fast bowler. India's batters will not be able to do any special practice against left arm fast bowlers. That means the batsmen of the team will face left arm bowlers like Shaheen Shah Afridi of Pakistan, Dilshan Madushanka of Sri Lanka, Mustafizur Rahman of Bangladesh and Fazalhaq Farooqui of Afghanistan directly in the match itself.
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