Page 41 - The Indiane EYE 070723

SPORTS JULY 07, 2023 | The Indian Eye 41

vacant spaces before the World Cup
with Mohammed Shami and Umesh 2023. India needs a bowler who can
Yadav missing out. come in and bat.
Experienced players who man-
Even though he struggles with
aged to hold on to their place include maintaining his economy rate in
Ajinkya Rahane who has been named T20I, he flourishes in the ODI for-
as the vice-captain of the squad with mat as he has bagged 50 wickets in
Rohit Sharma continuing to lead. 35 matches with an economy of 6.22.
In the ODI series, the Indian
The same situation applies for
squad also features a lot of the regu- Siraj. Heh as a different charm with
lars, with Gaikwad finding himself as the red ball, but with the white ball
a part of the white ball setup as well.
he is yet to showcase his true skills.
This series could take both bowlers a
Rajasthan Royals skipper Sanju step closer to the World Cup squad.
Samson has finally got his re- INDIA’S TEST SQUAD
call in the Indian ODI team, with Rohit Sharma (capt), Shubman Gill,

KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant out Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane (vc),
Ruturaj Gaikwad, Yashasvi Jaiswal,
with injuries. His biggest back- KS Bharat (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra
drop has been his inability to Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur,
Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar,
find consistency. Jaydev Unadkat, Ishan Kishan (wk),
Navdeep Saini
Jasprit Bumrah, KL Rahul and
Shreyas Iyer are all still recovering INDIA’S ODI SQUAD
from surgery for various injuries, and Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman
with Rishabh Pant undergoing rehab Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli,
after surviving a car crash last De- Surya Kumar Yadav, Sanju Samson
cember, KS Bharat and Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper), Ishan Kishan (wick-
have been picked as India’s wicket- et-keeper), Hardik Pandya (vice-cap-
keepers in the Caribbean. tain), Shardul Thakur, Ravindra
In the absence of Bumrah and Rahane has spent the majority of his Test career at No. 5, but he has also played at first drop, Jadeja, Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal,
Shami, Shardul Thakur has the per- where he hit a century in 2015 against Sri Lanka (ANI) Kuldeep Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Mohd.
fect opportunity to take up one of the Siraj, Umran Malik, Mukesh Kumar.

Who can fill in Pujara’s place?

he selectors have a crucial an excellent average of 80.21. he has could well suit batting at No. 3 as ev- SHUBMAN GILL
decision to make about who played the highest knock of 265 in idenced by his six centuries from 28 Gill was the leading run-scorer
Twill fill the third spot. Let’s domestic cricket. first-class appearances at the domes- in the IPL 2023, he scored 890 runs
see batters who can come in at RUTURAJ GAIKWAD tic level. with an average of 59.33 in 17 out-
number three Ruturaj Gaikwad is another bat- AJINKYA RAHANE ings. In the WTC final, Shubman
YASHASVI JAISWAL ter who performed well in the pre- One of the positives from Gill was the choice for Playing XI,
The young talent has been in vious IPL season. The 26-year-old the WTC final was Ajinkya Ra- though he was not able to make an
phenomenal form, he was a steller made his ODI debut last year in Oc- hane’s form. He showed met- impact as scored 13 and 18 runs.
in the last edition of the Indian tober but he is still waiting for his test tle against Australia when In- VIRAT KOHLI
Premier League (IPL). Playing for cap. There are changes that he could dia was struggling. He scored 89 Virat Kohli loves to bat at
the Rajasthan Royals, Jaiswal was play his maiden test in West Indies. and 46 in the match respectively. number three in one-day matches,
one of the leading run-scorer. He Gaikwad has excelled as an Rahane has spent the majority it would be interesting to see him
struck 625 runs in 14 games. opener for Chennai Super Kings of his Test career at No. 5, but he bat at the third spot in the red-ball
Jaiswal also has an impressive in the Indian Premier League over has also played at first drop, where cricket. However, it will be not
first-class record. He has scored the past few seasons, but the right- he hit a century in 2015 against Sri favourable to move him from his
1,845 runs in just 15 games with hander has a sound technique that Lanka. regular 4th position.

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