Former Chennai Super Kings (CSK) batter Subramaniam Badrinath has asserted that the Indian head coach Gautam Gambhir’s favourite players are back in the Indian T20I squad for the forthcoming Afghanistan series.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Badrinath didn’t name anyone in his statement. However, he reckoned that the Tamil Nadu all-rounder Washington Sundar is getting a lot of backing from the Indian team management.
“On first look, the coach’s favourites are back. Washington Sundar is getting tremendous backing in Indian cricket. He needs to really make use of it. And somehow I don’t rate Nitish Kumar Reddy so high. That’s because of his bowling. I still feel he’s a batter and not someone I rate with the ball,” Badrinath said on his YouTube channel.
Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh and Axar Patel return to the squad after being rested for the most recent Zimbabwe tour. Meanwhile, Rinku Singh, Prabhsimran Singh, Harsh Dubey, Suryansh Shedge, Ashok Sharma, Prince Yadav, Mayank Yadav and Yash Thakur have been left out of the squad that toured Zimbabwe.
On the other hand, Jasprit Bumrah, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana and Washington Sundar have all been named for the three-game series, but subject to getting fitness clearance from the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence.
Notably, Samson was dropped from the playing XI midway through India’s T20I series in England. Though he returned to the XI for the fifth and final T20I vs England, he was rested for the Zimbabwe tour.
“I also like Sanju Samson’s selection. They’ve been playing around too much with his place. So it’s good to see him back,” he added.
India’s squad for Afghanistan T20Is: Shreyas Iyer (c), Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Sanju Samson (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Tilak Varma (vc), Shivam Dube, Nitish Kumar Reddy*, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar*, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah*, Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana*
Note: *Subject to fitness clearance
