The Indian selection board announces the 16-man test squad for the upcoming WI tour. Three players Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, and Mukesh Kumar got their maiden test call. The veteran batsman Cheteshwar Pujara and bowler Umesh Yadav were not selected for the upcoming call. The fans and some cricketers were not so happy with the selection of the team. The Indian fans were also disappointed with the selection as they thought that the selectors have selected the new players on the basis of their IPL performance which is not fair for the test squad. The players who performed exceptionally well in the Ranji cricket didn’t get the chance because they didn’t get to play in the IPL.
Here are some of the players who did not find a place in the test squad despite performing well:
Sarfaraz Khan: The youngster cricketer had been performing excellently for the last few Ranji seasons but he is not able to find a spot in the Indian test squad. In the previous season, he scored 556 runs in 9 innings with an average of 92.66 with 3 centuries and 1 fifty. He has been in top form in red-ball cricket, it was expected that he will play in the Indian test squad, but he was not selected.
The Indian Legend Sunil Gavaskar said that” Sarfaraz Khan has been scoring runs at an average of above 100 in the last three seasons, what else does he have to do to get selected? Even if not in the 11, he can be taken into the team- tell him that his performance is being watched otherwise stop playing Ranji.
Abhimanyu Easwaran: The youngster cricketer is also among the unluckiest who were not picked up for the test squad. The right-handed opener has been scoring runs in Ranji cricket. In the last season, he scored 798 runs in 14 innings with an average of 66.50 with 3 centuries and 3 half-centuries. His first-class average of 47.85 in 87 innings shows his skills in the red ball format but the selectors have selected Jaiswal and Ruturaj and it seems that the selectors also saw the IPL performance of players for the selection.
Prithvi Shaw: The youngster debuted for India in tests in 2018 against Wi in which he won the Player of the Match award for his 134-run knock. The last test he played for India was in 2020 against Australia in which he didn’t perform so well and after that, the youngster didn’t get the chance to play for the Indian team. He has played 9 innings in his test career and scored 339 runs with an average of 42.37 with 1 century and 2 half-centuries. The youngster could have been given a chance to prove himself in the upcoming test.
If we compare the first-class cores since 2021 Sarfaraz Khan is at the top with an average of 92.8 followed by Yashasvi Jaiswal who has an average of 82.95 followed by Abhimanyu Easwaran with an average of 59.9 and last is Ruturaj Gaikwad with an average of 53.8. The selectors seem to have selected players not only on the basis of first-class cricket but also on their IPL form which prove to be wrong for the test format.
