World Cup Squad: The selection of the 15-man Indian squad has been the talk of the town for a while now, especially with all kinds of permutation and combinations being mulled over as India’s Asia Cup 2022 campaign ended in quite a damp squib. As always, Indian fans and also some sections of the media swung from one extreme to the other – every cricketer not part of the Asia Cup squad was demanded as replacement, not just for that tournament, but also for the T20 World Cup. One of those names was Mohammad Shami, and there were questions galore about how someone who has performed so well in the Indian Premier League can be left out of the Indian squad. Well, as it turned out, it is not always an IPL performance that merits an India selection.
Shami, along with Deepak Chahar, was among the fast bowlers who were selected as stand-byes as the expected set of Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel and Arshdeep Singh were named in the seam-up department, with Hardik Pandya as the other option.
No surprise there really. There was never any argument about Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar making it to the squad, irrespective of how the latter performed in the UAE during the Asia Cup. As was Arshdeep, who has shown some real talent.
As for the toss-up between Patel and Shami, it is a simple equation of who has been in the thick end of things off late. Shami’s last T20 International was in 2021, while Patel has been an integral part of the Indian squad for whatever tournaments they have played in the recent past.
Patel, with 23 wickets from 17 matches at an economy of 8.58, and a strike rate of 14.65 is ahead of Shami, who has 18 wickets from an equal number of matches, has an economy of 9.55 and strike rate of 19.83.
More crucially, Shami has been out of India colours for close to one year (November, 2021), while Patel’s last match was in July this year against England.
Another conjecture, about where Dinesh Karthik fits in all of this, was also ended with the keeper-batter included in the side, as was Rishabh Pant. How both will be fielded in the same match (if at all), is something interesting to see.
Ravichandran Ashwin’s experience puts him ahead of Ravi Bishnoi (who is a stand-by). No real surprises there either. At the same time, Ravindra Jadeja’s misfortune becomes Axar Patel’s ticket to Australia.
Lots has been said about Shami’s skills, but there are only so 15 who can go, so Shami is in the next best list. And if Team India’s record in the recent past is anything to go by, you never know, he may actually get a match before the World Cup is over.
Another little rumour doing the rounds till this morning was that Shikhar Dhawan may be leading the Indian team in the home series against South Africa as the World Cup squad would be ‘rested’. TO be honest, that would have been ridiculous. Those going to Australia need to see as much action before the tournament as needed, so the selection committee was right on the money to name almost the same squads for the South Africa and Australia series to be played at home.
Some of the stand-byes too get match practice, while Bhuvneshwar, Pandya and Arshdeep go through their paces at the National Cricket Academy. All of this certainly makes sense. Good time to shed all conjectures once and for all and focus on the World Cup real-time.
