Gautam Gambhir, Yusuf Pathan and other unpicked players who deserved a spot in Indian Squad for Zimbabwe tour 2016
The Indian Cricket Team’s squad for the limited-overs fixtures against Zimbabwe scheduled for next month was announced today, which saw the selection of an unusual number of new faces in the team’s setup. To be led by the incumbent limited-overs captain, MS Dhoni, the squad features several new faces such as Karun Nair, Faiz Fazal, Jayant Yadav, Mandeep Singh, and Yuzvendra Chahal. Ambati Rayudu, Manish Pandey, Mandeep Singh and KL Rahul are also set to make their limited-overs appearances.
The bowling department would be spearheaded by Dhawal Kulkarni– the seniormost of all pacers picked– and he would lead an attack comprising of Jasprit Bumrah, Jaydev Unadkat and Barinder Sran. Axar Patel and Rishi Dhawan have also been picked, most likely as potential all-rounders in the team. Axar also doubles up as the only experienced spinner in the squad.
However, if one notices the ongoing IPL season as well as the domestic season that concluded earlier this year, one would feel that some players were left hard done even after their consistent performances over a sustained period of time. Here, we take a look at 5 such players.
1. Krunal Pandya
If the last IPL season had belonged to the younger of the two Pandya brothers, this season has belonged to the elder one. Krunal Pandya was a relatively unknown face in the Indian cricketing arena until he was bought by the Mumbai Indians in the IPL 2016 auctions for INR 2 crores. Even after his selection for the MI squad people didn’t have the slightest of clues about his cricketing prowess and as to what exactly did he bring to the table.
It didn’t take long for that perception to change as Krunal burst onto the scenes with a blistering 86 off just 37 balls, a knock that contained 7 fours and 6 sixes, in a crucial match against the Delhi Daredevils to guide his team to victory. Even before that knock, Krunal had done well with the bat, playing brisk cameos down the order, as well as some tight economical bowling during the middle overs, as well as with the new ball. Overall, from 12 games Pandya scored 237 runs at an average of 39.50 and took 9 wickets at an economy rate of 7.57, and given his all-round capabilities, he deserved a chance to play for the Indian team.