India vs New Zealand 2021: The perplexing decision to drop Hanuma Vihari
Hanuma Vihari is a name that might not ring a bell to fans whose exposure to the team comes only from the IPL or World Cup. But without Vihari, India would not have won the 2020-21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
What is now hailed as one of the biggest results in Indian Test history owes many thanks to Hanuma Vihari's exploits. It was him and Ravichandran Ashwin who held a hostile Australian attack at bay for more than 60 overs on the fifth day of the Sydney Test to draw the game.
Impressively, Vihari did that with a torn hamstring. Imagine standing 60 overs in the middle of the day in the Australian heat, and you can't even run properly. And to add to that, you have to face Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon.
That 23 off 161 balls by Hanuma Vihari is one of the most glorious knocks of overseas Test match batting by an Indian player. That remains his last Test match, and now Hanuma Vihari has been dropped from the Indian team for the Test series against New Zealand.
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The BCCI did send out an update later, saying that Vihari has been added to the India A side that will tour South Africa after originally not even featuring there. But that is still difficult to digest as an Indian cricket fan.
On what basis was Hanuma Vihari dropped?
There has been no domestic cricket that has taken place in the country since the Australia tour due to the COVID-19 pandemic. So there is no basis to drop Vihari based on poor domestic form, or some other batter vying for the same position being in a better form than him.
Secondly, this is a series where India are resting their main players after most of them have had hectic schedules in the last 20 months. No Virat Kohli for the first test. No Rohit Sharma. No Jasprit Bumrah. No Mohamed Shami.
Guess who has not been playing hectic cricket for the last several months. Guess who is a Test specialist who could have used this opportunity to ease back into the side?
And who have the selectors chosen to bring back into the side? Wriddhiman Saha. Saha is 37, and will make way for Rishabh Pant when he returns from rest. This is an opportunity that should have gone to a batter who could have benefitted from it.
The two other batters who have been selected are Shreyas Iyer and Srikar Bharat, both selections being quite understandable.
Iyer's inclusion in the Test team has been coming for quite some time. He is one of the few Indian batters who have a Test batsman's head on their shoulders. Bharat, meanwhile, has amassed almost 4000 runs in First-Class cricket, and India could use another wicketkeeper in addition to Pant.
However, Hanuma Vihari should have still been in the squad and even in the playing XI.
The batter from Andhra Pradesh has played 12 Tests so far, and 11 of them have been away from home. That is such an unbelievable stat to imagine. Most Test batters are monsters at home, but very few manage to survive and score in conditions foreign to them.
7261 runs in fc cricket, avg 55. 21 100s. Has only played one test innings in India. In the West Indies he had scored of 32, 93, 111, 52*. Has batted wherever asked, saved a test match in Australia. This was such a good opportunity for him in home conditions. Perplexed. twitter.com/bhogleharsha/sā¦
However, here is a player who has played 90% of his career in foreign conditions. And Vihari has actually thrived in these conditions. Only 11 other middle order batters have scored more than Vihari away from home since the latter's debut in Tests.
Among them five players average less than Vihari, including India's very own Ajinkya Rahane and Virat Kohli. Yeah, you read that right.
Yet when someone like Vihari who deserves a chance to play at home and cement his position in the side finally has the stars aligning for him, he finds himself out of the team.
Here's the 1ā£4ā£-man India āAā squad for the South Africa tour š½ https://t.co/xc5tBNigjo
Yes, Hanuma Vihari is in the India A squad, But that is not an opportunity so much as demeaning to Vihari who has already proved he belongs to the main team. What do India wish to learn from Vihari's exploits with the A team? That he is a better Test batter?
He is player who has already played Tests and scored fifties in England and New Zealand. Vihari has also scored a hundred in West Indies, and saved a Test in Australia. Does he now need to prove that he is better in Tests than a Devdutt Padikkal, Baba Aparajith and Sarfaraz Khan?
No offense to those players, but Vihari would be right to feel hard done by with his unexpected snub from the Test team.
Vihari, 28, could very well go on to play Test cricket for India for the next few years. A home Test series would have gone a long way in ensuring that, helping him showcase his true potential. But to deny him that opportunity to do so is simply baffling. And frankly, a little disappointing too.