Internet Desk: The selectors of the Indian Cricket team again have dropped star spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja and continued backing the young guns like Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal for the ODI series against New Zealand.
The sectors committee chief MSK Prasad earlier said that the senior once were rested during the limited overs tour in Sri Lanka, but after that the selectors didn’t a chance to Ashwin and Jadeja during the Australia series and now against New Zealand too they haven’t been considered. It might be an indication that these two are slowly falling off the radar as far as ODIs and T20Is.
Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel and Yuzvendra Chahal have performed really well in the past three series and it is now very difficult to bring back both Ashwin and Jadeja for New Zealand ODIs.
India have already started with their preparation for the 2019 World Cup in right earnest.
Jadeja may feel hard done by as he was once again ignored on a day when he smashed 150 for Saurashtra in the Ranji Trophy game against Jammu and Kashmir.
Ashwin had a slightly tougher day as he bowled 24 overs for 60 runs taking just a wicket in return against the weakest team in the competition — Tripura.
Teams like Australia and New Zealand are vulnerable against wrist spinners as Kuldeep and Chahal had shown against the Aussies and Karn Sharma against the Black Caps’ A side, which had a lot of senior internationals.
Among the other changes, Shikhar Dhawan has predictably made a comeback after a brief sabbatical to attend family issues with KL Rahul making way for him.
Dinesh Karthik’s presence will mean that there will be some pressure on Manish Pandey as Kedar Jadhav, with his off- breaks, brings more variety to the side.
Karthik, who last played for India during the West Indies tour in July and was also a part of the Champions Trophy squad, has been picked again.
The 32-year-old was named in the India T20 squad for the recently-concluded Australia series but did not get a game.
Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav also have been dropped as they played only one match during the Australia series.
Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar have been identified as the new ball bowlers in shorter format with Shardul Thakur being called for some consistent performances for India A.