'He has potential to do what Sehwag did': Former selector says Prithvi Shaw shouldn't have been dropped for England tour

However, Prithvi Shaw's name going missing was slightly puzzling, given how the 21-year-old batsman has worked tremendously on his game after his technical flaws were exposed during the first Test in Adelaide last December.

There were a few shocks and surprises when the BCCI announced India's 20-member squad for the tour of England. Starting June 18, India play the World Test Championship final against New Zealand at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton before taking on hosts England in a five-Test series starting the first week of August. Contrary to reports that a jumbo squad comprising 30 players would be announced, the selectors stuck to the usual length.

Photo of Indian batsman Prithvi Shaw. (Twitter)

While the injured trio of Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami and Hanuma Vihari were welcomed back after missing the home series against England, the selectors decided to pull the plug on all-rounder Hardik Pandya and Kuldeep Yadav. Pandya and Kuldeep were part of India's squad for the four Tests against England, but hardly featured. While Kuldeep played just one Test – the second match in Chennai – Hardik remained benched. Hence, it wasn't shocking to see the dup dropped, especially given the fact that Hardik rarely bowls these days.

However, Prithvi Shaw's name going missing was slightly puzzling, given how the 21-year-old batsman has worked tremendously on his game after his technical flaws were exposed during the first Test in Adelaide last December. After scoring a duck and 2, Shaw was dropped from the remainder of the Test series, after which the batsmen returned home and worked hard to improve.

The result was that Shaw piled over 800 runs in the Vijay Hazare Trophy becoming the first player in history to do so and looked in great nick in the IPL. Sarandeep Singh, the former BCCI selector, expressed surprise over Shaw's exclusion from India's squad for the tour of England, praising the batsman and his batting.

"He has the potential to do what Sehwag did for India. You can't sideline him so early in his career. He has scored tons of runs in domestic cricket after being dropped post the Australia tour. He has corrected his technical flaws also, and look how he played in the IPL," Sarandeep told PTI.

The four specialist openers in the squad are Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Shubman Gill and KL Rahul, while a fifth opening batsman, Abhimanyu Easwaran has been picked as one of the four stand-by players. Sarandeep, who was in charge until India's tour of Australia earlier this year, feels the current selection panel needs to show more faith in the current young crop of players such as Shaw and Gill.

"You have to back a talent like Shaw and even someone like Shubman Gill (he is in the team but did not get runs against England at home) for that matter," Sarandeep suggested.