18

Aug

Team To Sri Lanka : Selectors Show Some Sense At Last

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New Delhi I Tuesday I August 18, 2026

Have the embarrassing defeats India suffered in Ireland and England had a salutary effect on the selectors?
Going by the choices that have been made for the tour of Sri Lanka, it seems so. 
Which is a good sign.
We have Siraj back in the team – he should have gone to Ireland/England.
Devdutt Padikkal has been brought back – remember he was parachuted into Indian side in Australia for a Test in 2025 ahead of Sarfaraz who was in the original selection and then discarded when we went to England in 2025.
Auqib Nabi Dar, the young Kashmir pacer who piloted J&K to a famous Ranji championship win in the last season, has been finally selected – he deserved to be picked ahead of other young pacers even for Ireland and England.
And in a massive u turn, Sarfaraz Khan, the middle order batter, has been recalled – even if to replace an originally selected batter, Sai Sudharsan, after being inexplicably discarded despite a decent run in Test cricket including a highest score of 150.
The squad in Sri Lanka after the changes and injuries now is:
Shubman Gill [C], KL Rahul [VC], Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant [WK], Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel [WK], Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Manav Suthar, Aquib Nabi Dar, Mohd. Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Gurnoor Brar, Devdutt Padikkal, Saransh Jain
Considering that Bumrah and Sai are ruled out due to injuries, is this selection logical?
One can say largely yes!
One stark omission that can be faulted is that of Axar Patel who has, believe it or not, the best all- time average among Indian bowlers in Tests at 19.66 – better than even Bumrah. Why is he not in the squad defies logic.
One can of course also question why Mohammad Shami is being ignored repeatedly – even if you are grooming a couple of youngsters, you equally need couple of seasoned hands around too to mentor them. We saw how Indian bowling fared in the last one dayer against England in the absence of Bumrah and conceded 400 plus runs. Inexperience was there for all to see.
Now let us look at the squad and figure out what would be the best combination.
Jaiswal and Rahul are now established as the opening pair. Rahul was in the Indian team in Sri Lanka last in 2017 and scored runs.
With Sai being out, one drop slot should go to Padikkal who much to help his cause scored a hundred in the practice game.
Gill has made himself comfortable at number 4.
The next batting slot should go to Sarfaraz followed by Pant. 
It is hoped that the tour selectors are not tempted to play Jurel as a batter.
The bowling combination should be two pacers and three spinners including one all rounder which is Jadeja,
India may begin the series with Siraj and Prasidh as the most experienced pacers in the team and Kuldeep Yadav seals a spinner slot. 
Incidentally both Jadeja and Yadav were in Sri Lanka in 2017 and played a role in India’s 3-0 win.
The other spin slot should go to Saransh Jain given he is an off spinner and could be useful against the left handers in Sri Lankan side.
Suthar is a left armer like Jadeja and hence even for the sake of variety, Jain should be preferred.
In case however the pitch looks seamer friendly, which is not normally the case, a pacer like Aquib should get a look in.
The series is important for India to earn points for the World Test Championship where we are currently in fifth place.
India can take heart from the fact that its Test record against Sri Lanka lately has been pretty good – 2-0 win in 2 Test home series in 2021-22, 1-0 win with 2 Tests drawn again in a home series in 2017-18 and even more importantly, a 3-0 win in Sri Lanka in 2017.
Therefore, India can look forward optimistically to the 2 Test series except for one weakness – its inability to tackle spin which has led to humiliation even at home where once we were invincible. Surely Sri Lanks would be looking to exploit this apparent weakness in Indian team. Let us hope our batting overcomes the past blues against spin and delivers.

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