India batter Suryakumar Yadav’s selection in a 17-member squad for the first two Test matches against Australia has ruffled many feathers for valid reasons. Yadav, who has been rewarded for his supreme T20I form, has been added to the list of Indian cricketers who have done well in one format but benefited in an entirely different one.
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Yadav’s Test selection would’ve been celebrated by one and all had uncapped batter Sarfaraz Khan not been scoring truckloads of runs in domestic cricket. With Khan doing almost everything in his capacity in order to earn a maiden Test call-up, his performances still seem to be not up to the mark to allure selectors’ attention.
Without dwelling too much into the numbers, it is enough to state that 25-year old Khan averages and strikes at 80.47 and 69.89 respectively and has registered 12 centuries and nine half-centuries across 52 first-class innings.
Ranji trophy performances should be the first criteria for test selections!
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) January 14, 2023
Irrespective of the reason, the right-handed Mumbai batter not getting a maiden national call-up neither sets the right precedent nor does justice to someone who has been ever consistent in the latest seasons of the prestigious Ranji Trophy.
Will Suryakumar Yadav Test debut happen in 1st Test vs Australia at Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium?
Yadav, 32, hasn’t been added to the Test squad for the first time. Part of the white-ball squads for the tour of Sri Lanka in 2021, Yadav had traveled to England to join the Test squad in the absence of injured players namely Shubman Gill, Washington Sundar and Avesh Khan. Both Yadav and fellow Mumbai batter Prithvi Shaw had traveled together but neither of the two got to play a match in England.
Yadav, who has scored 5,549 first-class runs in 79 matches at an average of 44.75 with the help of 14 centuries and 28 half-centuries, is unlikely to debut in the first Test against Australia in Nagpur starting from February 9.
With captain Rohit Sharma also returning to the Test squad, one out of vice-captain KL Rahul or opening batter Shubman Gill will have to make way for him at the top of the order. Hence, Yadav is comparatively down the pecking order even in case of a last-minute injury to any specialist batter.
As is the case in the ongoing ODI series against Sri Lanka, Yadav would ideally be contesting for a Test spot with his Mumbai teammate Shreyas Iyer. Just like the ODIs, Yadav might not be able to pin down Iyer because of his recent form. Iyer, 28, has scored 624 runs at an average of 56.72 consisting of a century and five half-centuries in 12 Test innings.
Apart from Sharma and Yadav, uncapped wicket-keeper batter Ishan Kishan, all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja (subject to fitness) and fast bowler Mohammed Shami have returned to the Test squad in place of uncapped batter Abhimanyu Easwaran, wicket-keeper batter Rishabh Pant, all-rounder Shardul Thakur, fast bowler Navdeep Saini and uncapped spinner Saurabh Kumar.
Interestingly, Yadav and Kishan, who had made their debuts in white-ball formats in the same matches, once again find themselves in the same squad as uncapped batters.
