3 players who didn't deserve a call-up to the Indian squad for the Sri Lanka series
The Indian cricket team announced their squad for the upcoming series against Sri Lanka yesterday.
With the T20 World Cup on the horizon, the three ODIs and three T20Is in July will play a big role in influencing national selection. Veteran batsman Shikhar Dhawan will captain a youthful Indian side that features several new faces like Ruturaj Gaikwad and Devdutt Padikkal.
India's squad: Shikhar Dhawan (Captain), Prithvi Shaw, Devdutt Padikkal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Suryakumar Yadav, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Nitish Rana, Ishan Kishan (Wicket-keeper), Sanju Samson (Wicket-keeper), Yuzvendra Chahal, Rahul Chahar, K Gowtham, Krunal Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy, Bhuvneshwar Kumar (Vice-captain), Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini, Chetan Sakariya
Five players received their maiden call-up to the Indian team. While all of them are quality players, these three may not have deserved the nod based on their performances in the recent past.
3. Krishnappa Gowtham
An expensive signing at the 2021 Indian Premier League (IPL) auction, Krishnappa Gowtham warmed the bench for the Chennai Super Kings as Moeen Ali excelled in the off-spinning all-rounder's role.
Gowtham hadn't impressed for Karnataka before the IPL as well. In the two Vijay Hazare Trophy games he played, he scored 28 runs and picked up three wickets while conceding almost 130 runs. And in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, he had scores of 12, 5, 13 and 1* to go with figures of 0/16, 1/26, 1/28 and 2/13.
Based on both domestic and IPL showings, Gowtham arguably didn't deserve his call-up to the Indian team. But with the team short of all-rounders, the 32-year-old - who has been part of the India 'A' setup for quite a while now - will be on the plane to Sri Lanka.
2. Chetan Sakariya
Chetan Sakariya's story is extremely inspirational, and he has gone through many hardships over the last year, so when he was announced in India's squad for the Sri Lanka series, fans rejoiced. But purely based on merit, the 23-year-old probably shouldn't have been among the four pacers who will tour the island nation.
Sakariya started IPL 2021 well, with two three-wicket hauls in his first three games. But in his following four matches, he scalped only one wicket while conceding over 30 runs in three of them. The Saurashtra-born bowler showed his variations and ability to swing the ball, but his lack of pace was exposed in the latter stages of the first half of the tournament.
The Vijay Hazare Trophy saw a similar pattern, as he faded away after a bright start to register figures of 1/59, 1/68 and 0/65 in his final three games. Sakariya is a superb talent, but he's probably too raw for international cricket at the moment and perhaps should've been given more time.
If the Indian selectors wanted a left-arm pacer, they could've looked towards Khaleel Ahmed and Jaydev Unadkat, both of whom bring unique skillsets to the table.
1. Nitish Rana
Nitish Rana was the fifth-highest run-scorer in the Vijay Hazare Trophy with 398 runs at an average of 66.33 and a strike rate of 97.79 as he played a massive role in Delhi's run to the quarter-final. But apart from that tournament and a few flashes of brilliance in the IPL for the Kolkata Knight Riders, the southpaw has done little of note.
Rana scored 183 runs in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, with 74 of those coming in a single innings. And after tallying 137 runs in his first two IPL 2021 games, his form tapered off with scores of 18, 9, 22, 0 and 15. His team's fortunes nosedived as well - KKR were seventh with only two wins from seven games when the tournament was suspended.
This pattern is all too familiar for Rana, who has struggled massively with consistency for many years now. And with India needing solidity in the middle order ahead of the series of ICC events scheduled this decade, the 27-year-old may not be the answer to their problems.
Rana doesn't offer anything in the bowling department apart from some extremely occasional offies, and the selectors could've picked a few all-rounders for the Sri Lanka tour. However, with middle-order options being few and far between, he has received his maiden India call-up.