Former Indian opener Kris Srikkanth believes Arshdeep Singh hasn’t yet reached Shubman Gill’s level and thus finds himself warming the benches. Singh was not included in the playing XI in the first T20I against Australia at the Manuka Oval, Canberra, which was called off due to rain.
India picked Harshit Rana and Jasprit Bumrah as the two main fast bowlers in the team. Furthermore, the visitors selected three specialized spinners in the playing XI.
Singh also could not get regular chances in the Asia Cup as India backed seam bowling all-rounders like Hardik Pandya and Shivam Dube in the team. Arshdeep is India’s highest wicket-taker in T20Is with 101 scalps under his belt and thus his exclusion is a bit surprising.
Kris Srikkanth said on his YouTube Channel, “Unfortunately for Arshdeep Singh, he hasn’t reached Shubman Gill’s level yet in the team combination. That’s where a person like Shubman Gill scores over an Arshdeep Singh. Shubman Gill was dropped even in the Test series in Australia. But then he was made the captain, and he did brilliantly in England.”
“Even T20Is, he didn’t score for a long time. Yet, he played superbly today. So the thought process with a guy like Shubman Gill probably was to give him as many chances and hope one day he’ll be a big leader and win matches.”
Meanwhile, the 1983 World Cup-winning player added that batters are given more leeway as compared to bowlers as far as selection is concerned.
“It mainly happens to bowlers. There is always an extra leeway given to batters because it’s a batsman-dominated game, especially the white-ball formats. So preferences always go to batters, nothing can be done about it,” said Srikkanth (via the aforementioned source).
Srikkanth cited Kuldeep Yadav’s example and added that the wrist spinner hasn’t received regular chances despite performing consistently.
“Take Kuldeep himself, he bowled brilliantly in the Champions Trophy, but did not play in England. Likewise, even ODIs, he didn’t play the first two games. In the same way, Varun Chakravarthy and Ravindra Jadeja won India the Champions Trophy but were left out of the ODI squad itself.”
The second T20I between Australia and India will be played at the MCG on Friday.
