Picture Credit: Twitter
The Indian Selection Committee led by Chief Selector Ajit Agarkar has finally named the 15-member squad for the quadrennial tournament set to take place in October-November in India. Agarkar, who is currently in Pallekele with the Indian squad at the ongoing Asia Cup 2023 named the side with skipper Rohit Sharma by his side in a press conference on Tuesday, September 5.
While the squad saw the comeback of KL Rahul; Shikhar Dhawan, Yuzvendra Chahal and Sanju Samson missed out from the scheme of things for the Men in Blue. Amidst this, former India Chief Selector of 2011 World Cup squad, K Srikkanth, who was joined by Sanjay Bangar and Piyush Chawla at the Star Sports studio questioned the selection of Shardul Thakur.
“Shardul Thakur jakar 10 pe batting kar raha hai, 10 overs bhi nahi dal raha hai,” he said while questioning the last time he bowled 10 overs. “Acha performance hai, mind mein rakhlo. Unko importance mat dedo. Isliye overall averages dikhana nahi chahiye (If a player has good performance, keep them in the back of the mind but do not give them the importance),” he further added calling out the overall stats and averages which tend to fool at times.
Additionally, the former India cricketer was in agreement with Sanjay Bangar for picking Arshdeep over Shardul in the side seeing the comparison of numbers and the quality bowling adding that Shardul is neither an extraordinary batter nor an extraordinary bowler.
India’s squad for ODI World Cup 2023:
Rohit Sharma (C), Hardik Pandya (VC), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Axar Patel, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav
