Prithvi Shaw and Suryakumar Yadav: The two Indian batsmen have been named as replacements in the Test squad for England tour.
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India batsmen Prithvi Shaw and Suryakumar Yadav have been named as replacements for the injured trio of Shubman Gill, Washington Sundar and Avesh Khan on the ongoing tour of England.
Gill was the only player among these three who had played in the ICC World Test Championship final against New Zealand last month. It was during the same match that the 21-year old player suffered a stress reaction on his left lower leg (shin).
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Sundar and Khan, on the other hand, took part in a three-day warm-up match against County Championship XI last week. Having suffered blows to their right-arm bowling finger and left thumb, both of them have been ruled out of the five-match Test series.
Much like Gill, Sundar was also part of the Test squad. As far as Khan is concerned, he was among the four standby players for the tour. The selection of two specialist batsmen as replacements for a specialist batsman, a spin-bowling all-rounder and a fast bowler is confusing but guess it is what it is in the absence of any press conference.
Additionally, the selectors have also promoted batsman Abhimanyu Easwaran from the standbys to the main squad which leaves only two standbys in Prasidh Krishna and Arzan Nagwaswalla.
Will Prithvi Shaw and Suryakumar Yadav play 2nd and 3rd T20I?
Shaw and Yadav’s names had been doing the rounds for some days now but the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) confirmed the development this afternoon.
Currently part of the white-ball squad in Sri Lanka, it remains to be seen if the pair will be available for the remaining second and third T20I to be played on Tuesday and Thursday respectively. As of now, there hasn’t been an official information about their date of travel to England. It also remains unclear if Shaw and Yadav will board the flight to England from Colombo or after returning to India.
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With the first England vs India Test to begin on August 4, it is almost unlikely that Shaw and Yadav will be available for the same in Nottingham as they will have undergo isolation periods before joining the squad.
The last of Shaw’s five Tests was the pink-ball Test against Australia in Adelaide last year. Shaw, who was dropped after the Australia tour, hasn’t played a single first-class match since then and his selection in the Test squad doubtlessly sets a wrong precedent.
Talking about 30-year old Yadav, all his seven white-ball matches for India have come this year. With the Ranji Trophy getting canceled last year due to COVID-19 pandemic, Yadav also hasn’t played a first-class match since February 2020. In his 77-match career, the right-hand batsman has scored 5,326 runs at an average of 44.01 including 14 centuries and 26 half-centuries.
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