The Indian management finally made the much-anticipated announcement of the squad of players who will play for them in the 2023 World Cup. The country is exclusively hosting the tournament for the first time and it is scheduled to start on October 5. The hosts themselves face Australia in their first match on October 8.
Just the sheer size of the pool of talent that India have at their disposal meant that the announcement of the squad was always going to come up with some headline conclusion. Sure enough, there are some big names that have been excluded from the squad. While spinner-all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin, veteran batter Shikhar Dhawan and fast bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar's exclusions have been noted, the trio were hardly selected for India's ODI matches in the last one year. That is not the case with spinner Yuzvendra Chahal and wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson, who have played ODIs this year.
Chahal and Samson's recent matches
ODI appearances have been hard to come by for Yuzvendra Chahal but the reasons for him getting the snub can possibly be understood better by seeing at the spinners India have chosen for the World Cup - Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel. Among the three, Kuldeep is the only player who is not a recognised batter. The squad has been selected out of the 17 currently playing in the Asia Cup and while announcing the team for that tournament, Agarkar had explained why Chahal missed out. “Chahal was discussed, but sometimes it is the balance of the side we had to look at. Kuldeep has been really good, Axar has done well, but to fit two wrist spinners was difficult, so Chahal had to miss out,” Agarkar told reporters.
{{/usCountry}}ODI appearances have been hard to come by for Yuzvendra Chahal but the reasons for him getting the snub can possibly be understood better by seeing at the spinners India have chosen for the World Cup - Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel. Among the three, Kuldeep is the only player who is not a recognised batter. The squad has been selected out of the 17 currently playing in the Asia Cup and while announcing the team for that tournament, Agarkar had explained why Chahal missed out. “Chahal was discussed, but sometimes it is the balance of the side we had to look at. Kuldeep has been really good, Axar has done well, but to fit two wrist spinners was difficult, so Chahal had to miss out,” Agarkar told reporters.
{{/usCountry}}The number of times Kuldeep and Chahal were picked and their corresponding performances say that this was always coming. In the 19 matches he has played this year, Kuldeep has played 13 matches and took 22 wickets at an average of 18.72. Chahal, on the other hand, could play just two matches this year in which he took three wickets.
Samson a victim of numbers
Samson's drop though, is a bit more perplexing but a look at the batters who he is competing with helps in understanding what the management's thought process would be. Samson has an impressive record in his short ODI career even when playing out of position in the middle order. At No.5, he has scored 104 runs in five matches and at No.6, he has made 180 runs in four matches. Shreyas Iyer's return from injury has led to him slotting back in the No.4 spot that he had made his own last year while Hardik Pandya is clearly an automatic choice at No.6. This left the No.5 as the only spot that Samson could play in but Ishan Kishan showed his caliber in that position in India's recent Asia Cup match against Pakistan. His extraordinary performances in ODIs in the last two years makes him difficult to ignore.
On top of all this is the return of KL Rahul. Rahul's fluctuations in form has led to significant doubts over his place in the Indian Test and T20I squads but the wicketkeeper-batter's record at No.5 is eye-catching. He has played 18 matches in which he has scored 742 at an average of 53.00. Rahul is expected to now join the team in Sri Lanka for the remainder of their Asia Cup campaign and it is clear that India's selection headache would be choosing him or Ishan Kishan as their No.5 batter and wicketkeeper. The only event in which this doesn't make sense is if both Ishan and Rahul are not available in a match. In that case, India seem to have put their trust in a wild card in the form of Suryakumar Yadav. SKY is recognised as one of the greatest T20 batters to have come out of the country but he himself admits that he has been unable to translate that form into ODIs. Moreover, SKY is no wicketkeeper and the unavailability of Rahul and Kishan, coupled with the fact that there are no official reserves for this squad, does make one wonder who would take the gloves.