T20 Asia Cup: Team India should play those in form and not just go by seniority

There is no point in keeping a red-hot batting form like Deepak Hooda out of the playing XI in the current T20 Asia Cup or the subsequent T20 World Cup, as the focus is on rehabilitating KL Rahul, who is not Has been able to make a comeback in IPL after injury. Hooda has consistently performed well in every T20 International he has played earlier this summer when Team India first toured Ireland and then England. Like KL Rahul, Hooda is a good fielder, but he has also been used as a part-time off-spinner in both IPL and T20 Internationals (T20Is).

If places in the playing XI are reserved on seniority basis, it will be difficult for any young player in form to find a place in the team and contribute if the focus is only on getting the older Kohli (who will be 34 years old). 5) and then 30-year-old KL Rahul in form. If nothing else, the ongoing Asia Cup has once again indicated that the final need not be an India-Pakistan affair. With the kind of performance Afghanistan are trying to reach the last four in the ongoing Asia Cup, India have to play their best side and cannot rest on their seniority or past reputation, be it batting or bowling. For example, if India pacer Avesh Khan plays well against Hong Kong, which was piled up by Pakistan, that should surely sound a warning bell.

With more and more cricketers being unable to play on medical grounds, be it due to injuries or Covid, the traditional logic of trying to get players back in form to keep up with them is beyond just a point of understanding. Doesn’t come in, especially in the shortest form of the game. This is the reason why England have dropped their senior and in-form opener Jason Roy from their T20 squad for next month’s World T20 tournament, while the injured Bairstow has also been forced to drop . The logic is that England cannot indulge in the luxury of stifling the momentum in the team for Jason Roy on the basis of seniority alone for next month’s T20 World Cup in Australia. That doesn’t mean it’s the end of the T20 international road for Jason Roy, who can always make a comeback, given the growing number of domestic tournaments in the shortest form of the game, be it T20s or ongoing ones in England. Hundred tournaments.

England, of course, have separate coaches for Test (Brendon McCullum) and white-ball cricket (Matthew Mott who coached the seemingly invincible Australian women’s team). Like players in this day and age of Covid, coaches are also not immune, with initial reports suggesting that Rahul Dravid will not be able to accompany India’s Asia Cup squad after testing positive. When the BCCI was thinking of sending VVS Laxman as the coach, Dravid recovered.

However, given the increasingly crowded schedule of international cricket (and not only multilateral tournaments but also bilateral series), the BCCI might have felt that a coach could not be the man for all seasons.

Not only can seniority be the criterion for a place in India’s T20 squad, while younger and fitter players can be in red-hot form. Remember that India won its first and only T20 World Cup in 2007 with a new captain and a young team that did not include senior superstars like Sachin, Dravid, Ganguly and Laxman.

Which is why, coming back to the ongoing Asia Cup, expert commentator Gautam Gambhir has been stressing the need to not only play the in-form Deepak Hooda, but also replace Rishabh Pant (who will turn 25 on October 4). are also questioning the logic of With 37-year-old Dinesh Karthik in the playing XI against Pakistan on August 28.

Originally published at Pen 18