India’s captain and head coach may have tried to downplay the whitewash in New Zealand by stating ODIs aren’t a priority in a T20 World Cup year but Sunil Joshi — in his first meeting as selection committee chief — hinted at the selectors building a team for the 2023 World Cup.
Hardik Pandya, Shikhar Dhawan and Bhuvneshwar Kumar — who have regained fitness after being out due to injuries — expectedly returned to the fold for the three ODIs against South Africa. The trio, which excelled for Reliance 1 during the recently-concluded DY Patil T20 tournament in Navi Mumbai, replaced Shivam Dube, Shardul Thakur and Mayank Agarwal from the squad that went to New Zealand.
Also read: Hardik, Bhuvi and Dhawan set for comeback
Hardik has been in swashbuckling form with the willow — he scored two hundreds, including a 158-run blitzkrieg that included 20 sixes and also picked a fivewicket haul — while Dhawan and Bhuvneshwar were put through their paces to prove match-fitness.
But the first meeting of the re-jigged selection panel, held in Ahmedabad on Sunday before the selectors headed to Rajkot to watch the Ranji Trophy final, preferred to include promising
youngster Shubman Gill in place of middle-order batsman Kedar Jadhav, thus indicating the planning for the future has begun. While Jadhav — who will turn 35 later this month — had been persisted with after the last World Cup, Joshi and Co. opted for Gill. It would be interesting to see if Gill, who featured in a couple of ODIs early last year in New Zealand, gets some gametime against South Africa. Despite the BCCI not elaborating on the changes in the squad, it is understood that pacer Mohammed Shami has been rested as part of the workload management regime. After a heavy workout in New Zealand across formats, Shami has also not been released for the Ranji final.
India’s ODI squad : Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Virat Kohli (C), KL Rahul (wk), Manish Pandey, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Shubman Gill.
