India axe Pujara for Tests in the Caribbean

MUMBAI, India (CMC):

India boldly dropped batting stalwart Cheteshwar Pujara yesterday from their Test squad for the Tour of the Caribbean, starting in July.

Instead, the men’s selection committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India turned to the uncapped pair of Ruturaj Gaikwad and Yashasvi Jaiswal in the 16-member squad to audition for the crucial No. 3 role that Pujara occupied for most of his 103 Tests, especially if Shubman Gill continues to open the batting.

The selection panel announced big changes to the Test squad when they also announced the squad for three One-day Internationals that will also form part of the tour.

Pujara and pacer Umesh Yadav, both 35, are the most visible omissions from the squad after a poor show in the ICC World Test Championship final against Australia a couple weeks ago in England, and uncapped pacer Mukesh Kumar also gets a chance.

Though Gaikwad and Jaiswal have strong records at the first-class, they appeared to have gained their places ahead of more suitable contenders for India’s first series of the 2023-25 WTC cycle after strong performances in the lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 tournament.

Jaiswal scored the fastest 50 in the IPL from 13 balls this season and finished the tournament among the top-five run-getters with 625 runs, while Gaikwad accumulated 590.

FIRST-CLASS AVERAGE

Jaiswal has a first-class average of 80.21 in 26 innings, and in his most recent match – the Irani Cup – he made 213 and 144 for Rest of India against Madhya Pradesh, a record for any batsman in the tournament.

Gaikwad has a first-class average of 42.19 from 28 matches with six hundreds, and he made headlines last November when he struck seven sixes in an over in a match for his team, Maharashtra.

Kumar, 30, has taken 149 wickets in 39 first-class matches for Bengal, helping them reach two Ranji Trophy finals in the past three seasons, and has a strong reputation for being a tidy line-and-length bowler, featured in every India A tour over the past two years.

The rest of the squad, led by Rohit Sharma, includes most of the players that played in the WTC final with Ajinkya Rahane regaining the role of vice-captain after he returned for that match, and was India’s top scorer in the one-off contest at The Oval in London.

Established pacer Mohammed Shami has been rested and fellow Navdeep Saini steps in to replace him, while pacer Jasprit Bumrah, and batsmen K.L. Rahul and Shreyas Iyer are still recovering from surgery or injury.

The first Test against West Indies starts on July 12 in Dominica, and the second Test in Trinidad starts on July 20.

On the ODI front, Sanju Samson earned a recall, and he is one of two wicketkeepers in the 17-member squad.

Gaikwad, whose only ODI against South Africa was in October last year, is also part of the squad along with the uncapped Kuamr.

The rest of the squad, also led by Sharma, are regulars in the frame for the ODI World Cup that India hosts later this year with Hardik Pandya named vice-captain.

Washington Sundar played in the home ODI series against the Australians in March, but he is the most notable omission, and Surya Kumar Yadav gets another chance though he ended the series against the same opponents with three first-ball ducks.

The Indians play ODIs on July 27 and 29 in Barbados, and August 1 at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Trinidad.

The squad for the subsequent five Twenty20 Internationals on the tour will be announced at a later date.

Squads:

TEST: Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), KS Bharat (wicketkeeper), Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Axar Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat, Navdeep Saini.

ODI: Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Surya Kumar Yadav, Sanju Samson (wicket-keeper), Ishan Kishan (wicketkeeper), Hardik Pandya (vice-captain), Shardul Thakur, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Mohammed Siraj, Umran Malik, Mukesh Kumar.