Former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra feels the Ajit Agarkar-led selection have made the wrong call of picking five spinners for the Champions Trophy. In the final Champions Trophy squad, Varun Chakravarthy was added in place of Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Chopra also noted that Mohammed Siraj is unlucky to miss out on the Champions Trophy squad. The renowned commentator wants Kuldeep Yadav to play ahead of Varun Chakravarthy in the upcoming eight-team tournament.
Chakravarthy was added to India’s Champions Trophy squad after he impressed in the five T20Is against England, picking 14 wickets at an average of 9.86 and thus bagged Player of the Series award. However, Chakravarthy was left out of the third ODI against England due to injury.
India have picked Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav and Varun Chakravarthy in the CT squad.
“They have included Varun, but who went out – Yashasvi Jaiswal. After doing that, we now have five spinners. Why do you need so many spinners? I felt the Indian team might drop Yashasvi but would keep a fast bowler for him and Varun in place of Washington Sundar. The danger I see in this is that you might play Varun ahead of Kuldeep,” Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube Channel.
“I have this bad feeling because you haven’t compromised your all-rounder. If you had kept only Jaddu (Ravindra Jadeja) and Axar (Patel) in the team and not kept Washi, then we might have felt that they are okay with it even if we don’t have batting at No. 8. Right now it seems, no matter what happens, we need a batter at No. 8,” Chopra added.
Meanwhile, Jasprit Bumrah was replaced by Harshit Rana in the Champions Trophy squad. However, Chopra highlighted that it is impossible to replace the gun fast bowler.
“When Bumrah goes out, you don’t have one but two changes. It’s impossible to replace Bumrah, but you still try. So you either strengthen your fast bowling or add a wrist spinner to your spin department. To be fair, the Indian selectors were trying to do something like that only,” he said.
The renowned commentator noted that Rana will not be able to fill in the big shoes of Jasprit Bumrah.
“They included Harshit Rana in the team for the first two ODIs against England and then he played the third match as well. So Harshit Rana was being prepared. However, he is not a like-for-like replacement because there is no one like Bumrah,” Chopra observed.
India will kick off their Champions Trophy campaign against Bangladesh at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai on February 20.
