The Indian cricket team were dealt a further blow earlier today as Axar Patel was ruled out of the upcoming ODI series against England due to a thumb injury. This news came in after it was revealed that India might go into the series without the services of Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, and Jayant Yadav.
Ashwin is suffering from a sports hernia that ruled him out of Tamil Nadu’s Ranji Trophy quarter-finals and semi-finals while Jayant is nursing a hamstring injury that kept him out of the fifth Test against England in Chennai. Jadeja, on the other hand, is most likely to be rested for the Tests against Bangladesh and Australia.
With his injury, Axar joins a long list of Indians who are injured. Mohammad Shami, Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya, and Ajinkya Rahane are the other cricketers who are currently injured
With this long list of injuries and absentees, here are the 5 bowlers who could probably be included in the limited over series against the Englishmen which begins on January 15th.
#5 Iqbal Abdulla
One of the stars of the Indian U-19 world cup winning side of 2008 under Virat Kohli’s captaincy, Iqbal Abdulla was touted as the next big spinner in Indian cricket. Unfortunately, he was not given a chance to prove himself on the big stage despite performing well for Mumbai at the first-class level.
After playing for Mumbai for 8 years between 2008 and 2015, he shifted allegiances when he moved to Kerala this season and picked up 26 wickets in 9 matches. He performed exceptionally well with the bat too as he smashed his way to a career-high score of 159 not out against Hyderabad in this edition of the Ranji Trophy.
#4 Parvez Rasool
Parvez Rasool created history in 2014 when he became the first cricketer from Jammu and Kashmir to make a debut for India in an ODI against Bangladesh. He was also the first cricketer from the state to get selected to play in the Indian Premier League in 2013.
The 27-year old who made his first-class debut back in 2009 is currently the captain of J&K state team. A worthy all-rounder, he has taken 38 wickets in 9 matches in this season’s Ranji Trophy at an average of 23.86.
#3 Yuzvendra Chahal
This 26-year-old from Haryana made news when he became the first person to represent India in both chess and cricket when the Indian cricket team came up against ZImbabawe earlier this year. The leg-spinner came into the limelight after a successful outing with the Royal Challengers Bangalore in this season’s IPL.
He played 3 ODIs for the Men in Blue this year and took 6 wickets at an average of 12.83 and economy rate of 3.20. He played an integral role in Haryana’s success in this season’s Ranji Trophy as he bagged 33 wickets in 7 matches at an average of 22.
#2 Shahbaz Nadeem
This 27-year-old from Jharkhand is one of the few bowlers who has picked up 50 or more wickets in two consecutive Ranji Trophy seasons by achieving the feat last year and this year. His match-winning performance against Haryana in the quarter-finals took Jharkhand to the semifinals of the prestigious tournament and took him to the top of the leading wicket takers list.
Despite consistently performing well at the first-class level, he has not got a chance to make his debut for the Indian team just yet. In 80 first-class matches for Jharkhand, he has taken 296 wickets at an average of 28.96.
#1 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 has been one of the best bowlers in this season’s Ranji Trophy taking 35 wickets in 8 matches.
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