The Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) announced the Indian team for the upcoming Australia tour. The selection committee chose the team for all three series and few new names were seen on the sheet. While Rohit Sharma’s name was missing from all three teams, KL Rahul reappeared on the test team.
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The team selection has surprised several with strange decisions. Sanjay Manjrekar was quick to question Rahul’s selection on the test team simply on the basis of his performance in IPL. Rahul is currently the top scorer of runs in the 2020 IPL with 595 runs in the tournament thus far.
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Manjrekar expressed his disagreement on Twitter, writing: “You set a bad precedent when you remember a player for IPL performance tests. Especially if the player has been an abject failure in his last Trials. Whether that player succeeds or fails is irrelevant, such selections greatly demotivate Ranji’s players. “
Rahul played his last test in August 2019 against the West Indies. He was on a losing streak of form in the format before being eliminated from the team.
Manjrekar posted another tweet raising questions about its recent form in the longer format. “Played WI at home after a tough series… 3 innings. 0.4 and 33 without Plus in WI (not difficult series) obtained 44.38.13.6. His latest series of tests, ”he tweeted.
Mohammed Siraj received his first test call. He was breathing fire against Kolkata Knight Riders when he went 4-2-8-3 and took the life out of his innings. He is selected as the fifth pacemaker of the team, while Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav were the direct options along with Navdeep Saini.
Rohit was not selected from the team due to an injury he sustained while playing in the IPL. However, the selection committee has said that he will be supervised by the team’s doctors.
The India test team for the Australia tour: Virat Kohli (c), Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vc), Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav , Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Mohdammed Siraj
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