On Friday night, BCCI announced the Indian squad for the first two Tests against Australia. While the core of the squad was on expected lines. there were a couple of surprises. While Ishan Kishan has come in as Rishabh Pant‘s replacement, Suryakumar Yadav has also got his chance. However, there were a few unlucky candidates. On that note, here, we take a look at two players unlucky to miss the Indian squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia.
India’s squad for first 2 Tests vs Australia:
Rohit Sharma (C), KL Rahul (vc), Shubman Gill, C Pujara, V Kohli, S Iyer, KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), R Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Suryakumar Yadav— BCCI (@BCCI) January 13, 2023
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1) Sarfaraz Khan
Rishabh Pant was ruled out of the series and hence, a slot in the middle order got opened up. Of course, it was always going to be KS Bharat in the XI but for the squad, the management had a chance to select a new face for the middle order. Having scored tons of runs in the Ranji Trophy, Sarfaraz was set to be the likely inclusion. However, that did not happen.
Instead, Suryakumar Yadav was given a chance, especially after his run of good form in T20Is. This decision is strange because SKY returned to the five-day format only recently. Hence, considering it is an important series against Australia, a few were baffled by Sarfaraz’s name not being there.
2) Abhimanyu Easwaran
Easwaran is one of the players unlucky to miss the Indian squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia. The West Bengal opener has been with the Indian squad for a while now. However, he is yet to make his debut.
In the Bangladesh series, the likes of KL Rahul were in poor form. Yes, Rohit Sharma is back but as a backup, India could have considered someone like Easwaran. The player has actually been in good form in the ongoing Ranji Trophy. He is an experienced campaigner and Australia would have found it hard to define strategies against him, as not much data is available.
