Hello, Good Afternoon and welcome to my page once again. It's IPL going on in last stage and India will play 5 T20 match series against South Africa, so India has announced their squad as they decided to go with new faces whereas senior players like Virat Kohli, Jaspreet Bumrah and Rohit Sharma will take rest during this series. It will be great to see some of the start who performed in IPL and get chance to play for India on International level, so it's time to discuss whole squad and which player get chances to play, so without delay let start.
Indian Squad
India's Squad:- KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Yuzwndra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umran Malik, Arshdeep Singh, Harshal Patel
Top Order
Recently Kohli resigned from the captaincy, and thus it has given to Rohit Sharma, but he is also resting for this series and thus captaincy is given to KL Rahul to lead India against South Africa. It's also surprising that Surya Kumar Yadav who is in good form not in the squad, means his injury is very serious. THere are lots of openers in this squad as Gaikwad, Rahul, Kishan, Venkatesh Iyer, so it's also good to see how they will manage them as Rahul likely to open for sure so maybe get Kishan to chance with him. The way Deepak Hooda played, his chances are more to play at No.3.
Middle order
In middle order they have good experienced player like Hardik Pandya who is performing well in IPL, Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer too, so it looks balanced middle order as they can also use Venkatesh Iyer in middle order too. Hardik can play a finisher role, but the way seeing batting line of the squad, it's likely that he will play in middle order around no 4 or 5. If he played here, it will be great to see how he perform because IPL and International match is different. I am also surprised with big name missing in this middle order is Rahul Tripathi.
Lower Order or Finisher
Now here is a big twist as there are some finisher players playing up the order and thus Dinesh Karthik looks fit here, but he is the only one as then there will be tail. There are no Jadeja or Ashwin in the squad, so it will be seen how they make team combination because Pandya will play up the order, then who will play with Karthik for role of finisher. There is Venkatesh Iyer too but if he will play then one of top order batsman have not got place for playing 11. They way Karthik played in IPL, He will defintely play but one more player need with him and thus look Pandya may not play in up the order.
Bowlers
For bowlers there are lots of options or can say in this squad there are full of bowlers so compared to batter, there will be more competition between bowlers who will get chance to play. This time there are lots of new bowlers in this squad as some played before but not experience of international cricket much while some are going to play first time.
Avesh Khan did good bowling so sure he will get chance as with him Umran Malik who impressed with his fast bowling also get a chance for sure, but then there is Bhuvneshwar Kumar who not impressive get place in squad is looks surprising too. It will be great to see Kul-Cha combination once again, so there are lots of choices here too. I don't think Harshal Patel, Arshdeep or Bishnoi get chance or can say one of them will get chance.
Probable Playing 11 & Confusion
KL rahul
Ishan Kishan
Deepak Hooda
Shreyas Iyer
Rishabh Pant
Hardik Pandya
Dinesh Karthik
Kuldeep Yadav/Axar Patel
Avesh Khan
Umran Malik
Yuzvendra Chahal
Here is I mentioned playing 11 as there are four bowlers and 7 batsmen where Hardik Pandya and Deepak Hooda can be 5th option for bowling but Pandya just back from injury, so it will be too much load on him. There is no other genuine all-rounder in squad as Venkatesh Iyer there then there will one top order batsman have to out from team to replace him which not they can afford. There is one possibility that Kishan will not play and Venkatesh Iyer can play, but then he has to open an Inning where he is not in good form.
There will be 5th bowler issue is big as if they will play with 5 bowlers then who will out of the team which will make batting shorter. Bhuwneshwar can bat little but not good with his bowling, so I don't think get chance to play. There is one more option that they can play with 1 spinner and one more fast bowler like Axar Patel or Harshal Patel as both can bat also.
So there are lots of combinations issue and batting order issue looks there and thus great to see playing 11 as which player get chance to play and my playing 11 are looks ideal as above, there will be looks only one change may happen so can't wait for this series. That’s it from me for today, and stay tuned for the next post.
