Mumbai: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) declared the Indian squad for the upcoming tour of Australia. The selection panel hand-picked the team for all three series and few fresh names were spotted on the list.
While Rohit Sharma’s name was missing from all three squads, KL Rahul, who is currently playing for Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) in Indian Premier League (IPL) at Dubai made a return in the Test squad.
#India have named their squads for the upcoming tour of #Australia. @ImRo45 and @ImIshant have not been included due to injury. @RishabhPant17 misses out on the white-ball squads, #Varun_Chakravarthy gets a T20I call-up. pic.twitter.com/UDkJtRUV5d
— Sportslight Media (@SportslightMed_) October 27, 2020
The team selection has raised several questions with unusual decisions. Former Indian cricketer-turned-commentator Sanjay Manjrekar was the first to question about selecting Rahul in the Test squad wholly on the basis of his performance in IPL. Currently, Rahul is the leading run-scorer in the IPL 2020 with 595 runs in the tournament so far.
Manjrekar wrote, “You set a bad precedent when you recall a player for Tests on IPL performance. Especially if the player has been an abject failure in his last few Tests. Whether that player succeeds or fails is irrelevant, such selections massively demotivate Ranji players.”
You set a bad precedent when you recall a player for Tests on IPL performance. Especially if the player has been an abject failure in his last few Tests. Whether that player succeeds or fails is irrelevant, such selections massively demotivate Ranji players. #INDvsAUS
— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) October 27, 2020
Meanwhile, Rahul’s last performance in a Test match was in August 2019 against West Indies. He was on a poor run of form in the format before being unhanded from the team. Manjrekar posted another tweet raising question on his recent form in the longest format. “Played against WI at home after difficult series…3 innings. 0,4 and 33 n.o. Plus in WI (Not difficult series) got 44, 38, 13, 6. His last test series,” he tweeted.
KL Rahul in his last 5 Test series
— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) October 27, 2020
– v SA – Avg 7.1
– v Eng – Avg 29
– v WI at home – Avg 18
– v Aus – Avg 10.7
– v WI – Avg 25.4
I say very lucky to get a recall based on IPL & white ball performance. But now let’s just hope he makes the most of this chance. Good luck to him! https://t.co/YBVbeut5jH
Mohammed Siraj sustained his maiden Test call-up. He was on fire while playing against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) when he registered 4-2-8-3 and made a brilliant record. He is selected as the fifth pacer in the squad while Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav were the easy choice along with Navdeep Saini.
Rohit wasn’t chosen in the squad due to an injury he underwent while playing in the IPL for Mumbai Indians. However, the selection panel has further stated he will be kept in observation by the team doctors.
India’s Test squad for Australia tour: Virat Kohli (capt), Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar, Ajinkya (vice-capt), Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Siraj.
