Now that India’s World Cup squad has by and large received all-round approval, the players who missed out are taking the IPL seriously to make a point. The odd choice has been explained by the chairman of selectors MSK Prasad, and skipper Virat Kohli must have had a say in the selection of a player or two.
The selected players may be approaching IPL a little cautiously while those who missed out are giving their everything at the T20 tournament.
Rishabh Pant, for one, is on the rampage to tell the selectors that he is the big-hitter the team might miss in England. Dinesh Karthik, who pipped Pant, is struggling to find form and has taken a break to go to Mumbai and train with his personal coach Abhishek Nayar.
Kohli and Prasad have repeatedly stated that the squad would be picked on the basis of performances in the last couple of years, and not IPL showings.
One can argue the case of Ambati Rayudu and sympathise with him, looking at the terrific overall average of 47 he has in the 50-over game, with three hundreds. He is branded as a one-day batsman.
KL Rahul, who does not know whether he is essentially a Test player (34 at an average of 35 with five hundreds) or if he can also be a top-order ODI player (14 matches, averaging 34, one hundred). He’s always had Kohli’s vote.
The other player who has worked his way up is Vijay Shankar. He got his break as Hardik Pandya missed the tours of Australia and New Zealand, and the Tamil Nadu all-rounder looks like a good prospect even if his figures may not be all that impressive right now.
Prasad tried to justify Vijay’s selection by saying that he is a three-dimensional player, inviting Rayudu to take a dig at the chief. Doubts have been expressed over Shankar’s ability to bat at the key No 4 position, and here Rayudu’s numbers are overwhelming.
Prasad is right. It is better to have a bits-and-pieces player in the middle order. But Rahul could be Kohli’s preferred candidate to bat at No 4. Kedar Jadhav is another claimant unless MS Dhoni is willing to take up that responsibility.
India have always had these bits-and-pieces players in their World Cup squads. Eknath Solkar, Abid Ali, Mohinder Amarnath, Madan Lal, Srinivasan Venkataraghavan, Ravi Shastri, Roger Binny, Kirti Azad, Manoj Prabhakar, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Anil Kumble, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Ajit Agarkar, the Pathan brothers, Stuart Binny, Robin Singh, Suresh Raina, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Amay Khurasiya, Axar Patel, and the towering Kapil Dev.
They have all been part of the World Cups squads right from 1975 because some of the batsmen could bowl and some bowlers could bat. The 1983 World Cup winning squad had six players who could both bat and bowl. Five were regulars, and all contributed handsomely.
When Dhoni won it in 2011, he had seven so-called “all-rounders”, with Yuvraj dominating both with bat and ball.
Dhoni could call upon Rohit Sharma and Kohli to turn their arm over, though both don’t bowl any more. Dhoni made Hardik Pandya to bowl with the new ball and at the death and he unearthed Jadhav’s golden arm to break partnerships.
Kohli’s squad also has Hardik, Shankar and Jadhav (who can bowl more than five overs), three pacer bowlers (Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah), and three spinners (Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravindra Jadeja).
(The writer is a veteran commentator and views expressed are personal. He can be reached at sveturi@gmail.com)