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A mandatory 14-day quarantine period in Adelaide earlier than the beginning of India’s marquee Test sequence towards Australia would possibly immediate the BCCI to ship a jumbo squad very similar to the West Indies and Pakistan in England, feels former chairman of selectors MSK Prasad. According to Prasad, it is perhaps a good suggestion to have a minimum of a 26-strong squad for the tour Down Under the place each India and the ‘A’ staff might be clubbed collectively for a month.
Pakistan are travelling with a squad of 29 (together with white-ball specialists) whereas the West Indies have 26 on their roster to be able to keep the COVID-19 protocols in England.
“The team management and seniors will have an opportunity to look at the youngsters who are knocking the doors,” Prasad, who until February was choice committee head, advised PTI throughout an interplay.
“In this process, you can also monitor those players who can be the potential guys for different spots in future,” Prasad stated.
A squad of 26 will make sure that India could be divided into two teams and a warm-up recreation might be performed in the course of the quarantine interval.
“Since we cannot trust the net bowlers about their exposure to COVID, it would be ideal to go with a large contingent as we can be assured of all the players’ safety as they will be in a bio-secure environment,” Prasad reasoned.
“In case someone tests COVID positive, then the players from this contingent can be picked as they would have served the mandatory quarantine period,” he added.
Prasad opined that it will likely be a wholesome preparation for the primary staff because the first-choice batsmen may have all kinds of bowlers at their disposal.
“Even for our main bowlers, they will have fresh batsmen to bowl at unlike the same bunch of first team boys. For instance, Shreyas Iyer is very aggressive and at times can be unorthodox. So, he might offer variety of skills which the Australian batsman might posses.
“On the opposite hand, a left-armer Khaleel Ahmed’s presence will assist in making ready for Mitchell Starc’s angled deliveries,” said Prasad.
A good bunch of reserve fast bowlers would be ideal as the first team bowlers like Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav won’t get tired in the nets in the absence of net bowlers.
The other reason to carry a big squad is that Sunil Joshi’s panel will not have a reference frame as there would be no domestic cricket before the start of Ranji Trophy.
If there is no domestic cricket happening then taking a large group of players will help the final squad in terms of quality preparation leading up to the Test series, reckons Prasad.
“Also, if IPL goes to occur previous to this sequence then carrying a big contingent is healthier as we must be prepared with again ups in case anyone will get injured or is carrying the niggles from the IPL.”
But there are a few disadvantages also and Prasad cited a couple of them.
“The solely powerful half that we are going to be going through due to this massive contingent is managing such a big pool of gamers. To present high quality practise periods to all of them may also be a problem,” said Prasad.
The other reason is that save for Cheteshwar Pujara and Hanuma Vihari (the two unsold Test players in IPL), others will have to switch from T20 to Test mode.
“If IPL goes to occur previous to this sequence then majority of those gamers would have performed in it after which carrying further gamers would possibly grow to be a debatable concern.
“But let’s not forget that IPL is only a T20 tournament which may not be ideal preparation for Test series,” stated Prasad.
Asked to placed on the selector’s hat yet another time, the previous India wicketkeeper picked up his alternative of 26 gamers — a combination and match of Test, ODI and T20 specialists.
His Choices:
Openers: Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul.
Middle-order: Virat Kohli (captain), Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer.
Wicketkeeper: Rishabh Pant, Wriddhiman Saha.
Spinners:Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shahbaz Nadeem, Rahul Chahar, Kuldeep Yadav.
All-rounder: Hardik Pandya.
Promoted
Pacers: Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmedh, Shardul Thakur.
Purely white ball: Deepak Chahar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Krunal Pandya.
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