3 Indian cricketers whose Test careers might end after the WTC
The hotly-anticipated ICC World Test Championship final will be settled between India and New Zealand at the Rose Bowl in Southampton, beginning June 18. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has named a 20-member squad along with four standbys for their UK tour. The entire Indian contingent is expected to leave on June 2 after undergoing a strict quarantine in Mumbai.
While the much-anticipated clash will no doubt see some of India's cricketers stamping their authority on the biggest stage, a few others might slowly fade away from the international circuit altogether.
With that in mind, we take a look at three Indian cricketers whose Test careers might end after the ICC World Test Championship.
#3 Umesh Yadav
Amid the emergence of young fast bowlers, Umesh Yadav has slowly faded away from international cricket. Unable to raise his game, the veteran pacer has been gradually losing favor with the management.
Yadav has only managed to play in seven Test matches since 2019. He was included in the Test series against Australia and participated in just two games before being dropped due to poor outings that saw him bag only four wickets. Subsequently, the cricketer from Vidarbha was left out of the squad for the England Test series.
While the 33-year-old has been selected for the UK tour, it might well be his last international assignment. He is unlikely to get any game time unless other pacers get injured.
#2 Wriddhiman Saha
Wriddhiman Saha mostly remained under MS Dhoni's shadow during the early days of his international career. Arguably the best wicket-keeper in the business, Saha only began to get his dues after Dhoni hung his boots in 2014.
He earned the trust of skipper Virat Kohli and the management, who backed him to be the first-choice wicket-keeper. But unlike his wicket-keeping skills, Saha's batting fell flat. He averages only 29.09 from 58 innings, with three centuries, and his most recent fifty in Test cricket dates back to November 2017 when India faced Sri Lanka at Eden Gardens.
The 36-year-old last played a Test match during India's tour of Australia in 2020, and failed to deliver. Rishabh Pant grabbed the opportunity with both hands and was one of the top-performers in India's landslide Test series win against the Aussies earlier this year.
With age no longer on his side, and management siding with younger cricketers, the upcoming contest could well be the last international tour for the Siliguri native.
#1 KL Rahul
While he continues to flourish in limited-overs cricket, KL Rahul's performances have fallen flat in the longest format of the game. The talented batsman from Karnataka last featured in a Test match during India's tour of the West Indies in 2019 - soon after the ICC World Cup in England - and he failed to score a single half-century in the two-match series.
Prior to that, during India's tour of Australia in 2018-19, he could only put together 55 runs from three matches, with a high score of 44. Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood had a field day with Rahul, plastering him with in-swing deliveries.
As a result of his poor form, Rahul was left out of the team ahead of the Australia and England Test series. Meanwhile, a couple of youngsters - Shubman Gill and Mayank Agarwal - impressed with the bat to claim berths for themselves. Meanwhile, in-form batsmen such as Prithvi Shaw and Devdutt Padikkal are waiting in the wings for an opportunity that will make Rahul's return to red-ball cricket even more difficult.