As the Board of Control for Cricket (BCCI) in India announced India’s Test squad for the first 2 Tests of the five-match Test series against England starting November 9, there were a few surprise inclusions and exclusions.
Hardik Pandya received a call-up , much to everyone’s surprise and Gautam Gambhir, who made his comeback in the 3rd Test against New Zealand last month was retained. KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar all missed out due to injuries.
As MSK Prasad made the announcement earlier today, there were a few players who would have felt hard done by the selection committee’s choices.
Here are the five players who missed out on being selected for the Test series against England.
#5 Kuldeep Yadav
Kuldeep Yadav, the chinaman bowler from Uttar Pradesh, has been knocking on the doors of Indian cricket for a long time now but has still not gotten a chance to prove his worth for the national side as he has continually been ignored by the selection committee.
Kuldeep, who made his first-class debut in 2014 for Uttar Pradesh has taken 65 wickets in 17 matches at an average of 34. His best bowling figures of 6-79 came in the Ranji Trophy this year against Delhi. He is currently in the top 10 bowlers of the Ranji Trophy this season with 19 wickets to his name in 6 innings.
He played for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League and made his debut in the 2016 season having picked up six wickets in 3 matches.
#4 Abhinav Mukund
The former Indian Test cricket batsman has made a strong point to the selectors with consistent performances over the past few years for Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy.
The opening batsman from Chennai made his debut in India’s tour of West Indies in 2010-11. He soon faded out and was dropped after the tour of England due to inconsistent performances. He managed only 211 runs in 10 innings and at an average of 21.10 and the highest score of 62.
Since then, he has performed well in the domestic circuit and has amassed 338 runs in 6 innings for Tamil Nadu this year at an average of 56.33 with two half-centuries and one century to his name.
#3 Manish Pandey
Manish Pandey who shot to fame due to his successful outing with the Royal Challengers Bangalore back in 2009 took some time to make his debut for the national side, as he did so only in 2015 against Zimbabwe in Harare where he managed to score a well-crafted knock of 71 in a winning cause.
He has been consistently performing well for Karnataka in the Ranji Trophy over the past few years and has notched up over 5000 runs for the domestic side at an average of 49.37. He will always be remembered for the match-winning knock of 104* against Australia earlier this year at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
He was chosen for the recently concluded ODI series against New Zealand, but his poor showing with the bat led to him not being picked for the Test series against England.
#2 Pankaj Singh
Pankaj Singh, who is currently the leading wicket-taker for Rajasthan in the Ranji Trophy with 24 wickets in 7 innings at an average of 16 must feel extremely hard done after the selection committee announced the 15 member squad for the Test series against England.
The speedster who made his debut for the Indian Test side against England in 2014 was hardly given a chance to prove himself as he was dropped after just two matches. He played his only One Day International against Sri Lanka at Harare where he had a disastrous outing as he did not pick up any wicket and conceded 45 runs in 7 overs.
Pankaj has been the spearhead bowler for Rajasthan over the past few years and with his superb performances, he deserves another chance to prove himself on the bigger stage.
#1 Yuvraj Singh
One of India’s most successful players will be looking to make another comeback to the national side after proving himself on the domestic stage with Punjab.
Currently, he is the leading run-scorer in the Ranji Trophy after four matches with 587 runs to his name. He achieved his highest ever individual first-class score against Baroda in the 4th round of fixtures of the prestigious tournament where he scored 260 runs in the first-innings of the match.
The 35-year old has played 40 Tests for India and has scored 547 runs at an average of 33.92 with 11 half-centuries and three centuries to his name. With Gautam Gambhir back in the Test squad after a long lay-off, Yuvraj too would be fancying his chances to make another mark on the big stage.
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