India vs West Indies, 2018: 2 unlucky players who should have made it to the Indian Test squad
Just a day after India have lifted their seventh Asia Cup title in a thrilling last-ball finish against Bangladesh, BCCI has announced the Indian Test squad that will play two Test matches against West Indies. While Virat Kohli, who was rested for the Asia Cup, is back with the team, certain key players were rested.
"Taking stock of the recent workload, the selectors have decided to rest Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Both Ishant Sharma and Hardik Pandya were not considered for selection as they are yet to recover from their injuries," a BCCI release read.
Prithvi Shaw and Hanuma Vihari got their first national call-up for the last two matches against England retained their places. In addition to that, Mayank Agarwal and Mohammed Siraj were rewarded for the performances in the domestic circuit with a maiden national call-up. With Shikhar Dhawan dropped from the side, KL Rahul remains the only opener in the side and one of the two young openers - Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal - is set to make a debut for India in the first Test starting on October 4.
India's 15-member squad: Virat Kohli (c), KL Rahul, Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (VC), Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur.
While we discuss those who made to the side, we might also want to think about two unlucky players who could not final a place in the 15-member squad:
#1 Karun Nair:
Karun Nair who is leading the Board President's XI against West Indies in a two-day practice does not find a place in the Indian squad. Nair was part of the Indian Test squad for all the five matches in England but did not get a chance to feature in any of the matches,
Even in the last Test match in England, Hanuma Vihari, who came into the side for only the last two Tests, was preferred over Nair. Nair, who has a first-class average of 51.09 is unlucky to not to make it to the squad as he did not get any opportunities to prove himself.
Nair remains the only other Indian batsman other than Virender Sehwag to score a triple century in Test cricket.
#2 Shahbaz Nadeem
Shahbaz Nadeem has been performing consistently over the past few years. In first-class cricket, he has 375 wickets to his name in 99 matches. Recently, Nadeem was with the Indian team in Dubai to help them to prepare for the Asia Cup.
With the kind the familiarity that he has with the team, he would have been a great addition to the Indian team. Playing for Jharkhand, he recently broke the world record for the best List A bowling figures as he picked up 8 wickets for just 10 runs against Rajasthan on September 20 in the Vijay Hazare trophy but even that was not enough.