Shubman Gill is the flavour of the season following his phenomenal performance in the recent Test series against England but he will have a contender in Axar Patel for vice-captaincy in the Indian team for the Asia Cup T20 next month in the UAE. Also, pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah will feature in the tournament and could be rested for the first Test against the West Indies early in October.
Selection Timeline and Medical Updates
The selection committee headed by Ajit Agarkar will pick the team for the Asia Cup on August 19 or 20 based on when the Centre of Excellence’s (CoE) Sports Science department provides the medical bulletin of all players, including that of captain Suryakumar Yadav, who has already begun batting at the nets in Bengaluru.
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There will be some tricky choices but the Indian selectors would obviously like to retain continuity that has yielded them a lot of success since Suryakumar became T20 captain.
Axar’s Previous Role vs Gill’s Recent Stand-In Captaincy
While Axar was the official deputy captain in India’s recent series against England at home, Gill was the stand-in when Suryakumar was initially made full-time captain of the T20 team in Sri Lanka last year.
It is realized that the selection panel will not be much eager to experiment with the composition because Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Suryakumar, Tilak Varma and Hardik Pandya make a good top five.
“Abhishek Sharma is world’s No. 1 T20 batter in last ICC rankings. Sanju Samson has been fantastic last season with both bat and gloves. So it will certainly be a tough call but Shubman in current form (although in Tests) can’t be ignored. He had a good IPL also. Problem for selectors is, there are too many performers at the top of the order,” a BCCI source privy to developments told PTI.
With so many top-order players, it would be immensely challenging to give Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sai Sudharsan a place.
Even KL Rahul, currently the preferred choice keeper in ODIs, won’t be considered since he doesn’t bat in the middle order.
Wicketkeeper Dilemma
Although Samson is virtually confirmed as the first keeper, the decision between Jitesh Sharma and Dhruv Jurel will be for the second keeper’s position. Although Jurel was included in the previous T20 series, Jitesh was impressive for RCB while they went on to win the IPL. He has also enjoyed playing the role of a finisher.
All-Rounder Options
While Hardik Pandya is India’s preferred white ball seam bowling all-rounder, Nitish Kumar Reddy, who got injured in the England series, will not be fit in time. Shivam Dube, who has made a decent comeback against England, will surely get a place in the team.
Axar and Washington Sundar will be the two spin-bowling all-rounders in the team.
Seam Bowling Attack and Final Contenders
The principal point of contention will be the seam-bowling attack in which Bumrah and Arshdeep Singh have secured their places. The third spot is a battle between Prasidh Krishna with 25 wickets in last IPL and the tall Harshit Rana who has the capability to bowl some really heavy balls.
Probable Candidates
Suryakumar Yadav (c), Shubman Gill, Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Tilak Verma, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Varun Chakravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana/Prasidh Krishna, Hardik Pandya, Jitesh Sharma/Dhruv Jurel.
