Team India will start their new year and their home season with a 3-match T20I series against Sri Lanka starting January 3. The 3 T20Is will be played in Mumbai, Pune, and Rajkot, followed by 3 ODIs too.
The sacked selection committee headed by Chetan Sharma will name the squad for the matches against Sri Lanka on Tuesday, and this could be the last squad that this committee names before the new one takes office.
India had a heartbreaking 2022 when it comes to T20Is as they failed to reach the final of both the Asia Cup and the T20 World Cup despite being ruthlessly successful in all bilateral series throughout the year.
While the senior batters are set to be rested – Rohit Sharma is nursing his thumb injury while KL Rahul and Virat Kohli are likely to be rested – this series presents an opportunity for other batters to grab their chances.
Here are 3 batsmen who deserve to be selected for the T20I series against Sri Lanka:
Prithvi Shaw
It remains one of the biggest injustices in the world that Prithvi Shaw has played only 1 T20I for India – in July 2021. While India have suffered in a multi-team T20 tournament with the likes of KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma opening and batting at an outdated rate, Shaw has been left wondering when will his chance come.
In 92 T20 matches in his career, Shaw has a strike rate of 151 and averages 26. In his last two IPL seasons, he’s had a strike rate of 159 and 152 at an average around 30.
Shaw is one of the most – perhaps even the most – explosive Indian T20 opener in the IPL, a machine filled with intent but waiting for his chances, left frustrating as others with a lower strike rate the him get chances to play for India. Here’s to hoping that the new selectors realise his T20 hitting penchant and give the 23-year-old what he deserves: a string of chances to open for India in T20Is.
Shaw recently was the second-highest scorer in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, his 332 runs came at a belligerent strike rate of 181!
Sanju Samson
In any other team barring India, Sanju Samson perhaps would have been one of the first names on their T20I sheets. For India, Samson has featured in only 16 T20Is spread across 7 years!
Whether he gets selected in Team India or not, Samson himself has decided to bat in the modern T20 approach – focus more on making impactful runs (that is, a higher strike rate) than focusing on the amount of runs. This has served him and RR well in the IPL, but with the Indian team, he hasn’t been given a consistent rope to showcase his formula, and has also been rotated in the batting order.
He was terrific in 2022: in 5 T20I knocks, Samson averaged 44 at a strike rate of 158, but was not in the squads for Asia Cup and T20 WC. 2023 might, and should, bring Samson more chances in the India colors, starting from the Sri Lanka series.
Shubman Gill
Shubman Gill’s case for a selection in the squad, let alone the playing XI, against Sri Lanka might be the weakest of the three in this list, but if he does get selected it would be based on his terrific form in the other two formats: in 18 Test and ODI innings in 2022, Gill averages 54 with two hundreds – he notched up his maiden ODI and Test tons this year – and 4 fifties. Out of it, in 12 ODIs this year, Gill averages a magnificent 74!
Talking of his T20 prowess, Gill may not be as aggressive as Shaw or Samson, but certainly fits in the bracket of Rahul and Rohit. In the title winning 2022 IPL season for Gujarat Titans, Gill scored 483 at an average of 34 and strike rate of 132. Gill’s presence at one end allowed other batters to play with aggression and freedom.
