After his outstanding performance in the most recent Test series against England, Shubman Gill is the talk of the town. However, he will have a challenger in Axar Patel for the position of vice-captain in the Indian squad for the Asia Cup T20, which is set to take place in the United Arab Emirates next month.
Additionally, India pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah is scheduled to participate in the event and may be rested for the first Test match against the West Indies in early October.
Depending on when the Centre of Excellence’s (CoE) Sports Science team sends the medical bulletins for all players, including captain Suryakumar Yadav’s, who has already begun batting at the nets in Bengaluru, the Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee is expected to choose the team for the Asia Cup on August 19 or 20.
The Indian selectors will undoubtedly want to preserve continuity, which has helped them well since Suryakumar took over as T20 captain, even though there will be some difficult selection decisions.
When Suryakumar was named the full-time captain of the T20 team in Sri Lanka last year, Gill served as his deputy, while Axar was named the vice-captain for India’s most recent home series against England.
Since the top five looks solid with Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Suryakumar, Tilak Varma, and Hardik Pandya, it is believed that the selection committee won’t be overly eager to change the lineup.
“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.
Finding a spot for Sai Sudharsan and Yashasvi Jaiswal would be extremely challenging given the number of players in the top rank.
Since he doesn’t bat in the middle order, even KL Rahul, who is currently the first choice keeper in ODIs, is unlikely to be taken into consideration.
Samson will almost certainly be the starting keeper, but Jitesh Sharma and Dhruv Jurel will compete for the position of second keeper. Jurel participated in the most recent T20 series, although Jitesh was a standout player for RCB during their successful IPL campaign and has also excelled as the finisher.
India’s top-choice white ball seam bowling all-rounder is still Hardik Pandya, as Nitish Kumar Reddy is unlikely to recover in time after suffering an injury during the England series. Shivam Dube is probably going to win a spot in the squad after making a strong comeback against England.
The other two spin-bowling all-rounders in the team are expected to be Washington Sundar and Axar.
The seam-bowling attack, where Bumrah and Arshdeep Singh have secured their spots, will be the primary point of contention. The third slot pits the powerful Harshit Rana, who can bowl some pretty hard deliveries, against Prasidh Krishna, who took 25 wickets in the previous IPL.
Probable contenders: Suryakumar Yadav (capt), 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
