On Saturday, 30th July, the BCCI announced India’s 15-man squad for the upcoming Zimbabwe tour in August. India will take on the African nation for 3 ODIs in Harare on August 18, 20 and 22.
The selectors have named a second-string squad, once again led by Shikhar Dhawan, to tour Zimbabwe. Now, because the Asia Cup will start on August 27 in the UAE, a number of T20 players are missing from this squad – such as Arshdeep Singh, Ravi Bishnoi, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
However, this squad also indicated that the most of the players selected here will not be part of India’s Asia Cup squad – meaning the likes of Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan could perhaps be not selected for the multi-nation tournament.
India squad for Zimbabwe ODIs:
Shikhar Dhawan (C), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shubman Gill, Deepak Hooda, Rahul Tripathi, Ishan Kishan (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Avesh Khan, Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj, Deepak Chahar.
Anyway, today we look at three players who were unlucky to be ignored by the selectors for the Zimbabwe ODIs:
Prithvi Shaw
It is quite baffling to everyone that dynamic opener Prithvi Shaw is not back in the plans of the selectors in any of the formats, especially given his thunderous exploits since being dropped from the sides early last year.
In the Vijay Hazare 2021 Trophy, India’s premier domestic 50-over tournament, Shaw broke all kinds of records by smashing 827 runs in 8 matches with 4 centuries. He has had two ballistic IPL seasons for Delhi Capitals wherein he clattered runs at a strike rate of over 150.
He played 3 ODIs on the Sri Lanka tour last July, wherein he was Man of the Match in the first game for his blistering 43 runs off 24 balls to setup India’s chase and finished the series with an average of 35 and strike rate of 125. Shaw’s absence from the national team in the past year still remains a big doubt whether he’s not fit or the selectors have cast him aside for the time being.
Sarfaraz Khan
Sarfaraz Khan had a splendid Ranji Trophy 2022 season where he finished as the tournament’s leading run-scorer with 982 runs at an average of 122, in the tournament where he notched up 4 tons in 9 innings.
The right-hander bagged the Player of the Tournament award helping Mumbai to the final. However, despite two back-to-back Ranji seasons where Sarfaraz has ransacked big runs, the 24-year-old has not been given a call-up to the Indian team in Tests or even in ODIs; the Zimbabwe tour could have provided him with a good platform to launch himself into international cricket.
Mohsin Khan
While India have finally found someone like Arshdeep to give them the left-arm seam bowling option, the selectors have, for an inexplicable reason, not included any left-arm pacer for the Zimbabwe tour.
Mohsin Khan, who recently hogged the limelight with his impressive show for the Lucknow Super Giants in the IPL 2022, could have been handed a maiden India call-up.
And not just because he did well in the IPL – 14 wickets in 9 matches, bowling at an economy of 5.96! – but also because the 24-year-old from Uttar Pradesh has good List-A numbers: 47 wickets in 35 matches at a brilliant bowling average of 17.
