So is our off-spin cupboard bare? No, we have Krishnappa Gowtham, who recently played ODI in Sri Lanka. So Ravichandran Ashwin's back-up is a man who has 19 wickets from 8 first-class games with just two wickets per game. A season before that (2017-18) he didn't play Ranji Trophy due to injury. In the 2018-19 season, he had 147 runs and 10 wickets in six games with no five-wicket haul. He played 2 games in 2019-20 (last time Ranji Trophy was held) and got 9 wickets with a seven-wicket haul against Jammu and Kashmir.
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He has played four Tests in late 2016 and early 2017 before being plagued by injuries.īut a closer look at his first-class record in the preceding years (before COVID-19) robbed one full domestic season, Jayant had played eight first-class games across the earlier two editions of Ranji Trophy. Jayant Yadav is a steady off-spinner and capable middle-order batter without being exceptional. Jayant Yadav's back in mix, Gowtham in India A The second question is that if Vihari had to be selected for India A, why wasn't it done in first place on the day A squad was announced and Prithvi Shaw was selected in that list? Was it an after-thought since Shreyas was picked in the Test team or was it pre-decided? Like BCCI's press releases that never gives a proper picture, we won't know.Ĥ. If Rahane with an average of 19 across 11 Tests gets a go, why wasn't Vihari preferred over Shreyas Iyer, who hasn't played red ball cricket of late? But out of his 12 Tests so far, Vihari has only played one in India and most of his games have been in Australia, West Indies and one in England, back in 2018. The last Test for India was where he batted for three and half hours with a torn hamstring and saved the match with an unbeaten 23 off 161 balls. There was every possibility that Hanuma Vihari wouldn't have played the second Test against New Zealand in Mumbai because regular skipper Virat Kohli would have made a comeback. IMAGE: But out of his 12 Tests so far, Hanuma Vihari has only played one in India and most of his games have been in Australia, West Indies and one in England, back in 2018. The choice of Jayant Yadav as back-up off-spinner in Test squad, or picking Baba Aparajith over the likes of Mandeep Singh and Sheldon Jackson in India A, could raise pertinent questions as to whether enough respect has been given by this committee when it comes to selecting performers in domestic cricket. His last innings of significance was 61 at Lord's in India's Test win.īut before and after that has been a saga of failures which has led to questions being asked how selectors came to a conclusion that Vihari, whose last effort for India was a match-saving 23 battling torn hamstring in Sydney, was the one who should be axed. This despite the fact Rahane, in 2021, appeared in all of India's 11 Test matches (2 in Australia, 4 in India and 5 in England including the WTC final vs New Zealand) scoring 372 runs at an average of 19. With regular captain Virat Kohli resting as a part of workload management programme and Rohit Sharma also needing a break after a long stay inside the bio-bubble, the national selection committee under Chetan Sharma had no option but to appoint regular vice-captain Rahane as the leader for one game.
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However, what has raised eyebrows is how Hanuma Vihari was demoted to India A after being mysteriously dropped for the home series against the Black Caps where he could have got a chance to rake up some good Test scores. The India captaincy, even if it's for one game, couldn't have come at a better time for Ajinkya Rahane as the two Tests against New Zealand could well be his last chance at redemption before the big series in South Africa.