Mumbai: There was no place for Yashasvi Jaiswal in India’s squad of 15 announced on Sunday for the three-match ODI series in England starting on July 14. The prolific left-handed opener from Mumbai would count himself extremely unlucky to miss out, having struck his second one-day ton in the third and final game win over Afghanistan in Chennai on Saturday.
Jaiswal’s place will go to Virat Kohli, who returns from injury – subject to regaining full fitness. Kohli has been scoring heavily ever since he decided to purely focus on ODI cricket, hitting three hundreds and three fifties in 9 innings.
Jaiswal finds himself in direct competition with Rohit Sharma for the opening slot to partner skipper Shubman Gill. Rohit has been doing enough to keep his place. He scored a gritty 78 in Saturday’s match in which he took his time to get into groove before finding his range. With a number of youngsters knocking on the door, Rohit, 39, will feel the pressure to rediscover his fluent best in the England series.
Hardik Pandya was ruled out, still unable to take the bowling load required for ODIs after his back trouble in IPL. This hands Nitish Reddy another opportunity to impress. The 23-year-old allrounder has built up his bowling speeds and is the only one tipped as cover for Pandya.
Axar Patel has been handed a comeback to replace Harsh Dubey. In his first series, left-arm spinner Dubey couldn’t complete his quota of overs in the two matches he played. Competition is intense with only one left-arm spin allrounder likely to make it to the World Cup. The experienced Ravindra Jadeja is expected to get a look in, later in the year.
Ishan Kishan keeps his place, having made a strong case as a wicket-keeper batter with his hundred against Afghanistan. For now, he is second choice after KL Rahul, who has been ably shouldering the responsibility in the middle order.