Former Indian Test batter Aakash Chopra believes Abhimanyu Easwaran is unlucky to miss out on the two-match Test series against the West Indies. Easwaran was part of the Australia and England tour but could not get his chance in the final XI. Surprisingly, he was overlooked by the Ajit Agarkar-led selection panel for the WI Tests.
Easwaran has scored 7885 runs in 104 first-class matches at an impressive average of 48.67 and thus deserves his chances but Sai Sudharsan and Devdutt Padikkal were preferred ahead of him.
“Abhimanyu Easwaran’s absence pains me a little because you have kept him with the team many times, taken him around, but have not played a match. You are not making him play at all. Now he is not part of the team. There was no place for him in the playing XI,” Chopra said on his YouTube Channel.
“I think there would have been a toss-up in the mind between Sai Sudharsan and Abhimanyu Easwaran. I think Sai Sudharsan has given enough glimpses for you to persist with him, and this will be the series where he will have to leave his imprint and seal the deal. So Abhimanyu Easwaran misses out, which is really unfortunate,” he added.
Meanwhile, Chopra reckons Karun Nair failed to prove his mettle on the England tour as he could only manage 205 runs in four Test matches and thus he was overlooked by the selectors.
“Karun Nair asked cricket for a second chance. Cricket gave him a second chance. We were repeatedly saying in the England series whether he would play the next match. He was doing enough for you to feel that he can do it, but he didn’t do enough for you to say he cannot be dropped,” he said.
“He became relevant, but he didn’t become undroppable. He wasn’t indispensable. The selectors decided that they are done as they expected a bit more, and if they have to go to someone else, they would go towards youngsters, in which Devdutt Padikkal’s name is there. Devdutt Padikkal missed out on the previous tour completely because he was injured,” Chopra observed.
The opening Test match between India and West Indies will be played at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad, from October 2 onwards.
