29

May

Test Team Selection Some Questions Remain Unanswered

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Indian cricket team for the forthcoming 5 Test tour of England has been announced -  Shubman Gill (C), Rishabh Pant (VC & WK), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel (WK), Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav.

The analyses of the selections have begun and will continue for some time.

The job of Indian selectors is no doubt complex and thankless. Yet, we expect that if they reach that level, they should be competent for the job they perform and base their selections on performance, talent, sound logic and consistency.

The selection of Indian team for England should therefore be critically scrutinized on the above parameters.

What do we observe?

While one can not quarrel with the choices of openers (Jaiswal, Rahul and Easwaran as back up) or spinners (Jadeja, Sundar and Yadav), the other selections have issues.

Optics: There is plethora of cricket going on these days – Test, one dayers, T20 and that too both in domestic as well as international arena. Its quite a task to keep track of all and separate them when making selections for any format. Further, its possible to get carried away by latest performances than look at performance over a period of time. In making Gill captain over Pant, optics have prevailed in which Gill looks better based on IPL performance of the individuals and their teams. Forgetting that T20 is increasingly coach or dug out driven and may not be true test of captaincy skills. Gill’s average in overseas Tests is merely 27.5 in 15 Tests as against 42 in 17 home Tests; in his last and only tour of England, he managed a niggardly 88 runs in 3 Tests and 6 innings. Is he a certainty in the batting line up – does not look like. Pant’s statistics on the other hand are better: 9 Tests in England at an average of 32 and average of 37 in 30 overseas Tests! And he is much more a certainty than Gill is.

 

Column at a Glance
The Indian cricket team for the upcoming 5-Test tour of England has been announced, with Shubman Gill as captain and Rishabh Pant as vice-captain. However, the selection process has raised several concerns. The choice of Gill as captain over Pant appears to be based on optics, with Gill's recent IPL performance being prioritized over Pant's better statistics in overseas Tests.A person with a beard AI-generated content may be incorrect. The selection process also lacks consistency, with players like Sarfaraz and Padikkal being dropped despite previous selections. The team's balance is also a concern, with only three middle-order batters and seven pace bowlers. The selectors could have done better by applying a more logical and performance-based approach, and the team's chances in the challenging English conditions may be affected by these decisions.
 

 

 

 

Consistency: Sarfaraz was in the squad in Australis earlier this year – despite repeated failure of batting line up, he was not played even once. Yet he is now out of the squad. Similarly, Padikkal was drafted in Australia from outside the squad to fill in a middle order spot when Rahul was moved to open in absence of Rohit and then kept out expectedly when main batter returned. But he is now not even in 18!!! Surely one Test appearance can not be a criteria for judging a player. Once a player is selected, there needs to be consistency in how selectors treat him which is not seen in these cases.

Logic: What was India’s failing in Australia – undoubtedly batting! With Rohit and Virat having retired, the batting looks even more brittle – yet the squad has 7 pace bowlers and only 3 middle order batters – Gill, Sai and Nair!!! Not counting 3 openers – Jaiswal, Rahul and Easwaran. What happens if one of the middle order batter fails - there is no back up!!!

Let us look at pace department now. How many bowlers are we going to play in the final 11 – ideally the bowling  attack should be 3 pacers (Bumrah/Siraj/Arshdeep), one pace all rounder (Reddy) and one spinner (Jadeja). In case the pitch offer some spin, we would drop one pacer for spinner – either Arshdeep or Reddy for Yadav or Sundar. So why do we need 3 pacers as back up – Prasidh, Akash Deep and Thakur? Are we not one or even two pacer extra and at least one batter short in the middle order.

In addition, given that Pant is certainty, no other wicket keeper has any chance of playing – could we not then do with Rahul as back up rather than Jurel and free another slot for a specialist batter in the middle order where we are weak.

Bumrah lost captaincy because he is not certain for 5 Tests in view of previous injury and workload management – same logic could be applied to Shami. We did not hear definitively that he is unfit and ruled out of playing cricket for some time. If he is fit to play, he should have been in and his workload managed too.

Performance: Karun Nair has rightly been rewarded for his consistent performance in domestic circuit. But the same yardstick is not applied to Shreyas Iyer who too performed consistently in domestic cricket.

The above indicates that the selectors could have done better. As it is England is a challenging place to tour. Not having the right balance in the team can compound the problems. One hopes that Gill clicks as batter and there is no repeat of what happened in Sydney earlier this year when the captain had to drop himself due to poor form. One also hopes that middle order performs and there is no need for the non existent back up.

We should wish the team all the best and hope it wins the tough series.

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