BCCI has made the announcement of the squad for the first two Tests against Australia. As expected, there were a few surprises. It was mainly down to the unavailability of some key players due to injury. In some cases, it was bad form, as well. On that note, here, we take a look at two surprise selections by India for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia.
1) Suryakumar Yadav
India needed some backups in the middle order and interestingly, the selectors did not consider the likes of Sarfaraz Khan, who have been in terrific form. Instead, it is the world’s No.1 T20I batter Suryakumar Yadav who has got a chance in the Indian Team.
After a long gap, it was only recently that SKY played an FC game. Yes, he has been in good form but Test cricket is an altogether different format. Also, considering his workload and with some important white-ball tournaments coming up, it was surprising that India selected SKY in the squad. It also gives a wrong signal to some of the consistent performers in the Ranji Trophy.
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— BCCI (@BCCI) January 13, 2023
2) Ishan Kishan
Ishan Kishan is also one of the surprise selections by India for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia. With Rishabh Pant injured, KS Bharat was an automatic choice for Team India. However, Bharat’s form with the bat in recent months is not great and hence, a backup was needed for him.
BCCI has given Ishan Kishan a chance in the Test Team. As per a few experts, Ishan has a few technical corrections to make both with his bat and with the gloves. With players like Upendra Yadav playing well for a few years now, it was a surprise that Ishan was given a chance. That said, India needed a left-hander in the middle order and it was not a big surprise to see Ishan’s name on the list.
