India's Test Squad for England Grows 18 to 19 as Report Hints at New Addition

 

With India just set to play their eagerly awaited Test in England, a selection row is already brewing. His player Shreyas Iyer after his excellent performance in the Champions Trophy came as a bolt out of the blue, because he has been not taken up in the test squad and this has been severely criticized by the former England cricketer Nick Knight.

Iyer was among the best players India had in the recent ICC Champions Trophy, the player who completed the tournament with most runs so far being 243 runs in the team. The fact that he is not a part of the red ball team has triggered eyebrows especially when the likes of captain Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are not available anymore.

In the media appearances, Knight was not shy to say:

Shreyas Iyer ought to have been in the flight to England. Having Rohit and Virat out of the equation this was a good time to have someone with the temperament and the experience of an Iyer in the middle order.”

The team is now depending on comparatively young shoulders of the Test side of India. Contrary to some cardinal rules of cricket, Knight showed optimism in KL Rahul who scored a century on a training game in Northampton and Yashasvi Jaiswal, Karun Nair, Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan- but there is still a process that requires a mentor.

In particular, Sai Sudharsan attracted the attention of Knight. He features as technically sound. I would make him number three and have Gill come in at four as he has been going well against swing bowling of late.

Recently on the bowling front Knight has been emphatic stating that 20 wickets equals winning in England. He feels that spinner Kuldeep Yadav may have a big contribution to make in case the pitches provide a bit of turning and praised Jasprit Bumrah as the best fast bowler in the world at this point of time.

The most talked about, however, is the lack of Iyer. In the wake of form, fitness, and recent performance going in his favour, the question dominating the minds of many is whether the selectors had passed off a golden chance to reinforce a changing Indian batting line-up.