As India’s squad for the remaining three Tests against England is announced, talks about the selection and non-selection of different players have been aplenty.
As India’s squad for the remaining three Tests against England is announced, talks about the selection and non-selection of different players have been aplenty. The team management and selectors have made some bold calls ahead of the remainder of the series by dropping and selecting a few players.
The inclusion of Akash Deep has come as a major surprise, even for the player himself, because he has been preferred over Avesh Khan, who travelled with the team earlier in the series. Team management might be impressed by his recent performances for India A and his ability to hit the deck and hurry the batters.
However, the biggest headline is the unavailability of Shreyas Iyer, as he has reportedly been dropped after inconsistent returns. Apart from low scores, his technique looked faulty in the initial two games, and Iyer even failed to take on spinners, his stronger suit.
He was constantly waiting for short deliveries against pacers and came in awkward positions while playing his shots, leading to unnecessary pressure on him. To break shackles, Iyer went hard after slow bowlers, which resulted in his dismissals on low scores in all four innings.
A screamer 🤯 from Stokes sends back Shreyas Iyer!#INDvENG #BazBowled #IDFCFirstBankTestsSeries #JioCinemaSports pic.twitter.com/nEbPLX88w3
— JioCinema (@JioCinema) February 4, 2024
Ian Chappell wrote a column for ESPNcricinfo, where he talked about different aspects of the ongoing Test series between India and England. Chappell wrote that the availability of Ravindra Jadeja and KL Rahul will strengthen India, but the absence of Virat Kohli is “a blow”.
“India is a strong side and they also have a good leader in Rohit Sharma. They will be greatly strengthened by Ravindra Jadeja’s and KL Rahul’s recovery from injury, but that Virat Kohli will not return for the rest of the series is a blow.”
Chappell added that selectors should stop overestimating Shreyas Iyer’s batting and should value Kuldeep Yadav’s wicket-taking knack, suggesting the team look past the former and give consistent chances to the latter.
“Hopefully the selectors will now stop overestimating Shreyas Iyer’s batting ability and learn to value Kuldeep Yadav’s wicket-taking capability more.”
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