3 surprising selections in India's squads for the West Indies tour
The 2019 World Cup ended on a sour note for India as they crashed out to New Zealand at the semi-final stage. The defeat meant that the hopes of a billion people were shattered in a trice and unsurprisingly, all eyes shifted to a post-mortem of where things went pear-shaped.
Hence, it was only inevitable that talks regarding the personnel and their suitability would crop up. The days in the aftermath of the elimination were filled with speculations regarding the identity of the players who might actually make the trip to face the West Indies in August and September.
On Sunday though, the BCCI put to bed all those discussions as they named the Indian squad for all three formats.
Also read: India's squad for West Indies tour announced; Kohli to lead in all formats
Contrary to common belief, Virat Kohli was handed the captaincy reins in all formats whereas MS Dhoni was an expected absentee. Additionally, Jasprit Bumrah was accorded a break for the white-ball leg while Hardik Pandya was rested for the entirety of the tour.
However, like many a time before, the touring party also included a few surprise inclusions. Thus, through the course of this article, we would take a look at three such players who made the cut for the series against the Caribbean outfit.
#3 Washington Sundar – T20I squad
Washington Sundar was picked to represent India in the T20I series after some time away from the national team setup. The lanky off-spinner is currently playing for the India A side in West Indies and many believe that his performances in the Caribbean have been the decisive factor in his call-up.
Sundar has been bowling well against the West Indies A side and has mustered 4 wickets in 3 games. Yet, he hasn’t been able to provide the X-Factor that the Indian team looks for in its spinners these days.
Moreover, the squad, discounting Sundar, already boasts of three specialist spinners. Hence, his inclusion could be termed a little superfluous under the circumstances.
Additionally, he doesn’t offer as much with the bat as Krunal Pandya or Ravindra Jadeja, meaning that he doesn’t have as many strings to his bow as the aforementioned duo.
Thus, the selection of Sundar over the likes of Axar Patel caught several people off-guard and on evidence, that might not be too unwarranted. Yet, the game of cricket is a great leveller and the lad from Tamil Nadu could silence all his critics with an accomplished performance in the T20I series.
However, despite having said the above, his introduction into the squad still qualifies as surprising rather than a certainty.