"The fast-bowling unit is looking light" - Aakash Chopra on the selection of seamers in India's T20I squad for the West Indies series

Aakash Chopra feels India have a weak seam-bowling attack for the upcoming T20I series against the West Indies.

The selectors picked a 15-member Indian squad for the five T20Is against the Windies on Wednesday, July 5. Arshdeep Singh, who has played just 26 T20Is, is expected to lead the Indian seam-bowling attack.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra opined that India are short in the seam-bowling department:

"The fast-bowling unit is looking light. Umran Malik, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan and Mukesh Kumar - these are India's fast bowlers. If we go one by one, Arshdeep Singh shouldn't be a point of discussion, he has been absolutely outstanding, he is gold dust."

While acknowledging that Arshdeep deserved to be picked, the former Indian opener highlighted that the left-arm seamer didn't have a great IPL 2023 and was not used effectively by the Punjab Kings:

"However, the Punjab Kings halved his stature. They didn't get him to bowl where he should have bowled. I feel they marginalized him slightly. An outstanding player who had more ability to do well but you didn't let him realize his potential because you took away the new ball from him."

Arshdeep picked up 17 wickets but conceded an average of 9.69 runs per over in the 14 matches he played in this season's IPL. He gave a decent account of himself in the first few games but his numbers waned as the tournament progressed.

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"Very interesting choice" - Aakash Chopra on Umran Malik's selection

Umran Malik had a dismal IPL 2023 campaign for the SunRisers Hyderabad. [P/C: iplt20.com]

While observing that Umran Malik had a poor run in IPL 2023, Aakash Chopra pointed out that the speedster could be a wicket-taking option in the middle overs:

"Umran Malik - another very interesting choice because you can say it was the same story with him. A little worse that Hyderabad didn't use him at all and when they did, they didn't use him properly. He was extremely expensive when they played him in the end. But Umran Malik in the middle overs is not a bad option."

The cricketer-turned-commentator added that Avesh Khan's performances have been on the decline in recent times:

"Avesh Khan was in the Asia Cup team as well but his star has been on the decline after that. IPL was also okay. Now he finds himself back into the T20 team. He has been in and out and probably a lot of options are not available currently."

While highlighting that Mukesh Kumar is probably a better bowler for Test cricket, Chopra reckons the Delhi Capitals seamer might be the best option as Arshdeep's new-ball partner:

"Then you have got Mukesh Kumar, who generally you feel will be a better bowler for days' cricket. Here, because you don't have anyone with Arshdeep with the new ball - Umran Malik won't, Avesh Khan and Hardik Pandya can, but Mukesh Kumar definitely should. So he can win the deal there."

Chopra concluded by pointing out that he is not even able to think of any other deserving bowler who has been left out. While assuming that Mohammed Siraj has been rested, he wasn't sure whether Mohammad Shami is still in the selectors' scheme of things for T20I cricket.