Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav and Prithvi Shaw were the players not picked for the ICC World Test Championship final against New Zealand and the England Tests.
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The Indian cricket team announced a 20-man squad for the ICC World Test Championship and the five-match Test series against England. There were not many surprises in the side. There were four players on standby, with Arzan Nagwaswalla capturing all the attention for his exploits in domestic cricket. Most of the core side from the tour of Australia and the home series against England remained the same. But, there were some notable omissions.
Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Prithvi Shaw were the players who were left out for the ICC World Test Championship and England series. Shaw was dropped from the Indian team after he failed in both innings of the Adelaide Pink Ball Test against Australia. Although he made amends by averaging over 100 and leading Mumbai to the Vijay Hazare Trophy title, Shaw was not picked. The right-hander was also in fine form in the IPL 2021 for Delhi Capitals but he was still ignored.
However, the decision to leave out Kuldeep Yadav altogether from the Indian cricket team continued his frustration. In the last two years, he has been part of four bio-bubbles but has played just three or four games. In the IPL 2020, he played only a couple of games for Kolkata Knight Riders. During the Australia series, he did not play at all. In the England series, he played just one Test. Kuldeep did not feature in many matches for Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2021.
The decision to leave out Hardik Pandya makes some sense. Pandya has not bowled much ever since his back surgery and he bowled only a couple of overs in the ODIs against Australia in 2020. With the bat, he struggled for Mumbai Indians in IPL 2021. However, the most shocking decision was to leave out Bhuvneshwar Kumar. The pacer has achieved success in England but he has not been helped by some fitness issues in the last couple of seasons.
India could potentially leave for England by the end of May as they serve out a quarantine period. The UK has put India on the ‘red list’ for traveling. The ICC is negotiating with the England and Wales Cricket Board about the quarantine time. The ICC World Test Championship final will be played from June 18 to 22 at the Rose Bowl in Southampton.
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