Arzan Nagwaswalla: The 23-year old Gujarati pacer is one of the four standby players for India’s upcoming tour of England.
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In addition to a 20-member Test squad, the Indian selection committee has named four standby players for the upcoming ICC World Test Championship final and a five-match series against England.
As far as the original squad is concerned, the likes of Hardik Pandya and Kuldeep Yadav have been dropped primarily for in-form spin-bowling all-rounders in Washington Sundar and Axar Patel.
Hanuma Vihari, who had made his Test debut during India’s last tour of England, has been recalled to the squad. Other than Vihari, genuine bowling options in Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Shardul Thakur have also returned to the squad.
Who is Arzan Nagwaswalla?
23-year old Gujarat left-arm pacer Arzan Nagwaswalla will travel with the national team for the first time as a standby player on this all-important tour. Nagwaswalla isn’t a new name for people who have been following the Indian domestic cricket in the last few years.
So happy for Arzan…very well deserved…@GCAMotera
— parthiv patel (@parthiv9) May 7, 2021
In 16 first-class matches, Nagwaswalla has picked 62 wickets at an average of 22.53, an economy rate of 3.02 and a strike rate of 44.60. In the last Ranji Trophy season where he was Gujarat’s highest wicket-taker in their runners-up campaign, his 41 wickets in eight matches had come at an average of 18.36, an economy rate of 2.79 and a strike rate of 39.4.
Who are the four Indian reserves for WTC final between India and New Zealand?
Apart from Nagwaswalla, the Chetan Sharma-led selection committee has also named Bengal batsman Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karnataka fast bowler Prasidh Krishna and Madhya Pradesh fast bowler Avesh Khan as standby players.
While Easwaran has been part of the Test squad in the past, Krishna and Khan were recently seen representing Kolkata Knight Riders and Delhi Capitals respectively in the 14th season of the Indian Premier League.
Krishna, 25, had also made his ODI debut against England earlier this year picking six wickets in three ODIs at an average and strike rate of 29 and 25.10 respectively. In the previous Ranji Trophy season, Krishna had played only three matches picking 14 wickets at 17 and 33.2 respectively.
Khan, on the other hand, was the highest wicket-taker for Madhya Pradesh with his 28 wickets in five matches coming at 19.85 and 40.7 respectively.
