‘He can’t just play as a batsman’ – Sarandeep Singh on Hardik Pandya’s exclusion from Test squad for England tour
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Sarandeep Singh and Hardik Pandya
Former India chief selector Sarandeep Singh asserted that it’s completely justified to exclude Hardik Pandya from the Test squad for the upcoming World Test Championship (WTC) final and England tour.
Virat Kohli’s men are scheduled to lock horns with New Zealand in the WTC final followed by a five-match Test series against England. Singh mentioned that until Pandya begins bowling once again, he doesn’t fit in the squad. He said that the junior Pandya can’t play even in limited-overs cricket as a pure batsman.
The 41-year old said that Shardul Thakur has been quite promising in recent times and could be the fast-bowling all-rounder for the national side.
“The selectors’ decision to ignore Hardik for Tests is understandable. He has not been able to bowl regularly after his surgery. I feel he has to bowl 10 overs in ODIs and four in T20s to be part of the playing XI even in shorter formats. He can’t just play as a batsman.
“If Hardik doesn’t bowl, it disturbs the balance of the side hugely. You have to play an extra bowler because of that and someone like Suryakumar Yadav has to miss out. As we saw in the ODI series against England and Australia, we can’t play with five bowling options. The team now has other all-rounders in Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Jaddu is back, Shardul Thakur can also be an all-rounder, he has shown that. They all can do the job if Hardik can’t bowl,” Singh told PTI.
Sarandeep Singh questions Prithvi Shaw’s exclusion
The former cricketer also raised questions on the exclusion of young opening batsman Prithvi Shaw from the Test squad. The 21-year old was dropped from the playing XI after successive failures during the Australia tour. He’s not included in the 20-member squad for the match-awaited red-ball assignments for the Virat Kohli-led side.
Singh mentioned that Shaw comes with the potential to do what Virender Sehwag did for India. He added that the youngster has worked on his technical flaws and batted extremely well in IPL 2021.
“He has the potential to do what Sehwag did for India. You can’t sideline him so early in his career. He has scored tons of runs in domestic cricket after being dropped post-Australia tour. He has corrected his technical flaws also and looked at how he played in the IPL,” he added.
Also Read | WTC Final: Sanjay Manjrekar picks Shardul Thakur as the third seamer ahead of Ishant, Siraj
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Sachin Arora
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