On Friday, the BCCI Selection Committee announced India’s squad for the 2-Test series in West Indies, starting July 12. India will kick-start the all-format tour of West Indies with Test matches in Dominica and Trinidad before the limited-overs matches.
As expected, changes have been made from the squad that lost the WTC Final 2023 to Australia earlier this month at The Oval. Senior players Cheteshwar Pujara and Umesh Yadav have been dropped, Mohammed Shami is apparently rested, and uncapped Test players Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Mukesh Kumar have been given their maiden Test squad call-up while fast bowler Navdeep Saini has made a comeback.
While this may look what was in line, there are a few confusing decisions that the BCCI selectors have made.
Here are 4 confusing moves made by BCCI selectors in the squad for West Indies Test series:
Ajinkya Rahane as vice-captain, again!
Ajinkya Rahane has been once again named as the Test vice-captain. India are back to square one. Yes, Rahane did well as the leader of the side, in the Test matches that he’s led in, especially in Australia in 2020/21, but he’s 35 years of age. How can India have a vice-captain of this age when they should be thinking about the future captain to take over from Rohit Sharma, who is 36 years of age?
Plus, it doesn’t sit right with the fans that Ajinkya Rahane is not even in the central contract, and had been out of the Test side for 14 months and only made his comeback in the WTC Final 2023. While he was India’s best batsman in the final, helped by a no-ball dismissal from Pat Cummins, Rahane’s inconsistency with the bat was the reason for his ouster from the Test side in the first place.
This West Indies tour, with is the start of the WTC 2023/25 cycle for India, should have been used as a tour for India to start grooming a new understudy as the deputy of Rohit Sharma.
35 years old Pujara is dropped but 36-year-old Rohit is retained, and Kohli also gets a long rope
The dropping of Pujara is understandable: since 2022, he averaged 36 in 10 Test matches, with his lone century in this period coming against Bangladesh. And he is 35 years old.
However, some might say it was also unfair on Pujara. If he was dropped for his age, then captain Rohit Sharma himself is 36 years of age. If he’s dropped on form, then both Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane haven’t been in great form either. Since 2021, Kohli averages an ordinary 31, with his lone hundred in this period coming on a flat, lifeless pitch in Ahmedabad and 5 fifties in the other 37 innings. Rahane, since 2021, in 16 Tests averages only 23, much worse than Pujara.
Selection of Gaikwad sends wrong message to prolific, consistent red-ball domestic players like Easwaran and Sarfaraz
The selection of Ruturaj Gaikwad has further raised questions. Gaikwad’s name has been made through white-ball cricket and he had a decent Ranji season last time. However, there were other batters who have had even better domestic red-ball seasons, and have been prolific for the past few years.
For example, two players who have been very consistent in domestic red-ball matches are Sarfaraz Khan and Abhimanyu Easwaran, and yet they have been overlooked every time. Easwaran had been with the Test squad as a backup for a while, but now is dropped without even getting a chance. In first-class cricket, Easwaran averages 47 and Sarfaraz a stunning 79, while Gaikwad averages 42, which is under-par for a player who is selected to play Test cricket.
Who will be India’s new number 3 after Pujara?
It is more than likely that Pujara will not play a Test again. So who would be India’s number 3? This question arises because the selectors have picked two openers in Jaiswal and Gaikwad in the squad, both with no experience of batting at number 3. Many fans thought Hanuma Vihari, who was tried at 3 for only one series against Sri Lanka in 2022 and came with decent returns, should have been given a consistent run at that position.
India’s Test squad for WI tour: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), KS Bharat (wicket-keeper), Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Axar Patel, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat, Navdeep Saini.
