India squads for NZ, Australia series: Domestic cricket performers rewarded

Less than a week after taking charge, Chetan Sharma’s brand new senior selection panel embarked on its first assignment on Friday (January 13), picking the Indian squads to play New Zealand in three One-Day Internationals and as many Twenty20 Internationals, and to lock horns with Australia in the first two Tests of a four-match series that will decide if India makes it to the final of the World Test Championship or not.

One of the things that stood out in these selections was that sustained performances in domestic cricket have got their due, even if the player in question might be picked in a different format to the one where he has had immediate overwhelming success. Take Prithvi Shaw, for instance. Just the other day, the young Mumbai opener smashed 379 in a Ranji Trophy game against Assam, the second-highest first-class score by an Indian. The reward was immediate as he was picked in the T20I squad, to be led again by Hardik Pandya. Like against New Zealand, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were not considered for T20 selection, while KL Rahul made himself unavailable due to personal reasons.

Also read: Prithvi Shaw smashes record triple ton (379) in Ranji Trophy

While on the one hand it might seem incongruous that the man who made a mountain of runs in the longest format has been picked for the shortest one, it’s worth remembering that Shaw is no novice when it comes to the 20-over version. Still only 23, he has already featured in 92 T20s, both for Mumbai in the Mushtaq Ali Trophy and for Delhi Capitals in the IPL. With an average of 26.38 and a strike-rate in excess of 151, Shaw has proved himself to be a destructive force at the top of the order. As the long-term process of identifying potential candidates for next year’s T20 World Cup continues, he can entertain designs of being in the final 15 if he can keep form, fitness and, most crucially, his discipline together.

Fresh start

Shaw has only himself to blame for having played just five Tests (he made a hundred on debut against West Indies in Rajkot), six ODIs and a solitary T20I since his first appearance for the country in October 2018. A perceived love for the good things in life ushered him out of favour but his recall has to be seen as a fresh start, with the new panel willing to overlook the excesses of the past if it is convinced that players have turned over a new leaf. Shaw has a proven track record in all formats – he averages more than 50 in both first-class and 50-over cricket – and should fancy a long run at the highest level with India nudging towards the cusp of transition, but with Shaw, until he can convince the decision-makers otherwise, there will always be an asterisk in the immediate future.

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The inclusion in the Test set-up of KS Bharat, ostensibly as the first-choice stumper, instead of the unfortunate Rishabh Pant who is on the long road to recovery from his various injuries sustained in a road accident, is along expected lines. But with Ishan Kishan pencilled in as his understudy, another long-term vision has revealed itself. Apart from Shubman Gill, and the two Yadavs – Suryakumar and Kuldeep – Kishan is the only other player who figures in all three squads. That speaks to his versatility and the investment the selectors and the team management are willing to make in him. Kishan is a furious opener in T20s, slammed a double-ton in his last ODI (such is the competition for places that he was benched for the very next game) and boasts nearly 3,000 first-class runs, including six hundreds. His left-handedness is an asset in a predominantly right-handed batting group and while he may not get an immediate look-in, the fact that he is in the mix should act as a spur for the 24-year-old.

No place for Sarfaraz

Perhaps the most interesting selection is Suryakumar’s presence, like Kishan for the first time, in the Test squad. Hitherto celebrated as a towering T20 batsman who is ranked No. 1 in the world for a reason, this is the ultimate acknowledgement that he has multiple strings to his bow and that there is more to him than just a 360-degree destroyer of T20 attacks. Suryakumar is no spring chicken – he has the cushion of 12 years of senior representative cricket to fall back on – but 32 is hardly ‘old’ for a batsman, and especially someone whose work ethic and intensity isn’t inferior to even the driven Virat Kohli.

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In Mumbai circles, his selection ahead of the prolific Sarfaraz Khan might have created a massive furore, but it’s debatable if the selectors discussed Sarfaraz more than cursorily. Without taking anything away from the massive mountain of runs he has erected over the last couple of seasons, Sarfaraz will have to bide his time. Suryakumar is an unstoppable force of nature, and while the Test XI might appear a slightly distant dream at the moment with India sticking to their five-bowler theory, he ought to be the first-in-waiting should a middle-order slot somehow open up. After all, he has 14 hundreds and more than 5,500 first-class runs; most crucially, he has shown himself to thrive in the taxing, demanding, unforgiving cauldron of international cricket. By cocking a snook at the temptation to pigeonhole him as a white-ball specialist, the selectors have played a deft stroke with a subtle message to the chasing pack.

A fortnight back, at the review meeting in Mumbai, some of the most influential names in Indian cricket had reiterated their commitment to domestic cricket, insisting that players aspiring to play for the country can’t afford to overlook state duties on a whim. By then rewarding those who have done well at the domestic level, they have put their money where their mouth is. It’s more or less certain that the policy of injured players having to prove their match fitness by playing domestic cricket has returned – Ravindra Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah will have to take that route back, the former’s Test selection coming with a rider (subject to fitness) and the latter the object of a conservative approach even though it is obvious that he will play at some stage of the four-Test series against Pat Cummins’ Aussies.