On Friday, the Board of Control for Cricket in India announced the squads for the T20I and ODI series against New Zealand, as well as the first two Tests against Australia. However, the fans are not happy with the BCCI for the selection of players, especially for the selection of Ishan Kishan in the Test squad.
Young wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan has earned his maiden Test call after he was included in the first two Tests against Australia, which is scheduled to begin on February 9 in Nagpur. Ishan Kishan has replaced Rishabh Pant in the squad as the latter has been ruled out of action for almost six months. Rishabh Pant was recently involved in a tragic road accident in Roorkee on December 30 while on his way home. He is currently admitted to a Mumbai hospital and is undergoing treatment.
While Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav have received their maiden call-up for the Test series, on the other hand, talented cricketer Sarfaraz, who has been making a lot of noise with his consistent performances in the domestic circuit, has been ignored from the Indian squad.
In fact, the development came even as Sarfaraz averages an impressive 80.47 in first-class cricket. He has scored 3380 runs in 36 FC games, including 12 centuries and nine half-centuries. In the ongoing Ranji Trophy, Sarfaraz has impressed one and all with his amazing performances, scoring 431 runs in five games for Mumbai, including two centuries and a fifty. He had previously amassed 982 runs in six games last season at an average of 122.75, including four tons.
Ishan has been selected as the second wicketkeeper choice alongside KS Bharat in the squad. However, fans were left disappointed to see the Jharkhand-born cricketer in the Test squad. There were many who reckoned that players like Sarfaraz Khan, who are consistently performing on the domestic circuit should have been considered instead of white-ball specialists like Ishan Kishan.
Check out the reactions of the fans:
India’s squad for first 2 Tests vs Australia:
Rohit Sharma (C), KL Rahul (vc), Shubman Gill, C Pujara, V Kohli, S Iyer, KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), R Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Suryakumar Yadav
India’s squad for NZ ODIs:
Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, KS Bharat (wk), Hardik Pandya (vc), Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umran Malik
India’s squad for NZ T20Is:
Hardik Pandya (C), Suryakumar Yadav (vc), Ishan Kishan (wk), R Gaikwad, Shubman Gill, Deepak Hooda, Rahul Tripathi, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Y Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik, Shivam Mavi, Prithvi Shaw, Mukesh Kumar
𝗡𝗢𝗧𝗘: KL Rahul & Axar Patel were unavailable for the New Zealand Home series due to family commitments.
