Selectors make tough choices for Windies tour with an eye on the future

Indian cricket team (representational image)

Vimal Kumar

If you are Cheteshwar Pujara, a rare breed of cricketer and a Test specialist, you are bound to be disappointed with the selection of the Indian cricket team for the tour of the West Indies. Pujara, like everyone else in the top order (except Ajinkya Rahane), failed in the recently concluded World Test Championship (WTC) final in London, and yet he was singled out for that defeat. One can, of course, argue that India’s No. 3 has been struggling for a long time despite making a dramatic comeback last year during the one-off Test in Edgbaston against England.

Since 2020, Pujara has scored an average of 29.69 in 28 matches. That’s eerily similar to Virat Kohli’s average of 29.69 in 25 matches. But then Kohli is Kohli and he plays every format, and his relatively poor numbers can be overshadowed by his exploits in the IPL and white-ball cricket for Team India.

The man who made a stunning comeback in Test cricket after a gap of 15 months and is now elevated to Test vice-captaincy -- Ajinkya Rahane’s numbers in the same time frame are not flattering either. An average of 26.50 in 20 Tests.

The younger players have not been in sparkling form either. Shubman Gill (average of 32.89 in 16 matches) and KL Rahul (average of 30.28 in 11 matches) have struggled for consistency or big scores in Test cricket.

So, why just single out Pujara? Maybe because Pujara has played over 100 Tests for India, and at the age of 35 it appears that his best days are over. Considering the fact that India’s next Test assignment after the West Indies will be in South Africa, where Pujara hasn’t done well in his four tours (just one century in 19 innings) may have played a part in the selectors’ vision for the long-term planning of red-ball cricket.

New Test caps

So, who will take Pujara’s position on the team? Mumbai’s 21-year-old Yashasvi Jaiswal is most likely to fill in his place. Unlike Pujara, Jaiswal is a left-hander and is seen as an all-format player for India. Although Jaiswal is an opener, if he is asked to open with captain Rohit Sharma for the much-desired left-right combination at the top, Gill may be coming in as No. 3 in Test cricket.

Jaiswal was not only one of the highest run-getters in this IPL but a prolific run-getter in first-class cricket as well. A first-class average of 80.21 in 26 innings (which is better than his Mumbai teammate Sarfaraz Khan) and an ability to score runs on bigger stages (in the Irani Cup he scored 213 and 144 for the Rest of India against Madhya Pradesh) were the reasons the Mumbaikar was one of the standby players for the WTC final in England.

The man who was originally selected for WTC as a standby was Ruturaj Gaikwad, who had to withdraw because of his marriage. However, this time both Jaiswal and Gaikwad will be in the Caribbean islands for the Test series and may fight for a place in the playing XI. The Maharashtra opener may not have an astonishing first-class average (42.19 from 28 games with six centuries) like Jaiswal, but he has done enough to impress those who matter most in Indian cricket (been publicly praised by his IPL captain, MS Dhoni, for his technique and temperament).

Tighter bowling and wicket-keeping

India’s fast bowling department lacks experience. And with the exclusion of Umesh Yadav, a lot will depend on how Mohammad Siraj elevates his performance as the only strike bowler in the squad. While Mohammad Shami has been rested keeping workload management in mind, left-arm pacer Jaydev Unadkat is likely to share the new ball with Siraj. The 31-year-old Saurashtra pacer made a Test comeback after a gap of 12 years when he played against Bangladesh in December last year. Haryana’s Navdeep Saini too has gotten a fresh lease of life with his selection for the Caribbean Test series, as he last played in Australia’s famous Gabba Test two years ago. The pacer was on a flight when the selection meeting was taking place in Mumbai, as he had just signed a four-match county stint with Worcestershire. As luck would have it, he will leave England for West Indies after playing just one game in English county cricket this season.

The Indian selectors have not made any changes either in the wicket-keeping department (both KS Bharat and Ishan Kishan are in the squad) or spin department (the troika of Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel) and Shardul Thakur did enough in the WTC final to retain his place as a pacer all-rounder in the squad. You may wonder if Kuldeep Yadav should have been selected in place of Jadeja, as the Rajkot all-rounder too needs a break since he played all the matches for Chennai Super Kings in this IPL and is one of the key players for the ODI World Cup as well.

Last but not least, Rahane’s elevation (not exactly, some may argue, as he led in Australia ahead of Rohit Sharma in the epoch-making series victory) as vice-captain is interesting. With not too many options in red-ball cricket for leadership as of now, Rahane could be an ideal interim captain in Test cricket whenever the selectors feel that the regular captain needs a break.