The All-India Senior Selection Committee announced India’s squad for the first two tests of the upcoming series between India and Australia last night, and it has quite a few shocking inclusions. Besides Ravindra Jadeja (whose inclusion is subject to fitness), the list also included Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan, who have recently shone in the shorter formats of the game for the national team but are yet to prove themselves in test cricket.
A Times of India news piece seems to have found out exactly why these two players have been added to the squad. “India needs someone like Pant to take the game away, so selectors have taken Ishan — same is true for Surya, who can score quickly as the series may be in Turners,” according to the article, and this is justified in many ways.
Rishabh Pant‘s unfortunate car accident has kept him off the field for an extended period of time, which is a significant loss for the Indian test team. Although Pant’s performance in the shorter formats has been questionable in the last few months, he has been one of the top performers for India as far as Test cricket is concerned.
In fact, it was Pant who won us the historic Test series back in 2021 in Australia, and we surely will miss him in the upcoming series. The closest replacement we could get for him was Ishan Kishan, as their profiles match a lot. Suryakumar, too, can change the game with his explosive batting.
Jaydev Unadkat has been added to the squad as well after his impressive performance against Bangladesh in the previous series. He has made a solid case for himself and it won’t be shocking if he even finds himself a spot in the playing XI against Australia. However, the challenge this time is ofcourse a lot more serious.
India’s test squad against Australia for the first two tests: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas 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.
Twitter Reacts:
India needs someone like Pant to take the game away so selectors have taken Ishan – same the case with Surya, who can score quickly as series might be in Turners. (Source – TOI)
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) January 14, 2023
