“Our middle order is packed,” chairman of selection committee explains Hanuma Vihari’s exclusion from Test team

The All-India Senior Selection Committee has announced separate squads for the upcoming tours against New Zealand. The NZ series for the ODI format will be led by Shikhar Dhawan, while the T20 series has shocked the fans after Team India witnessed Hardik Pandya leading the team. India’s Test and ODI teams for the December tour of Bangladesh have also been announced by the BCCI. Between December 4 and December 26, the two teams will play three one-day internationals and two test matches. Given their standing in the current World Test Championship cycle and their need to go to the final, India must win the Test series. Hanuma Vihari is excluded from the Test team for the Bangladesh tour, but chairman of selectors Chetan Sharma explained that his absence was due to a middle order that was already quite full.

“There were a lot of discussions about Hanuma. Our middle order at this time is packed, if you talk about the eleven with Shreyas Iyer and Virat Kohli (in the middle order), and Shubman Gill obviously is in the scheme of things. Hanuma is also in the scheme of things but sometimes you miss out.

“It’s not like there’s something wrong with this player but according to the combination, conditions and wickets in Bangladesh…the selectors spoke about it, this is your formation and you have to see who are the players who feature in the eleven. So that is the reason Hanuma missed out. He was there in the side and he’ll definitely come back very soon.”