ICC World Cup 2023: Bhuvneshwar Kumar Is In India's Scheme Of Things For WC - Sunil Joshi

Former Indian spinner Sunil Joshi who was the former Bangladesh spin bowling consultant and now the coach of the UP domestic side has spoken about the importance of domestic cricket and the upcoming domestic season.

The Duleep Trophy 2023 is ongoing at the moment. Tournaments like the Vijay Hazare Trophy and the Deodhar Trophy will follow soon. The Deodhar trophy will make a comeback after a gap of four years.

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The tournament will be played in the zonal format for the first time since the 2014-15 season. It has six zones namely, North Zone, South Zone, Central Zone, North East Zone, West Zone, and East Zone.

In an interview with Hindustan Times, Sunil Joshi spoke about the importance of the upcoming domestic cricket season for World Cup-bound players at home later this year. India will host the ICC World Cup 2023 unanimously between October 5-November 19.

” For me, every domestic season is important, but being the World Cup year, the upcoming season is very crucial for Team India as this is their best chance to win yet another ICC trophy on home turf. I believe that all the possible players of the team for the World Cup, including all the top guns, should represent their state teams in the Vijay Hazare Trophy so that they can prepare well on spin-friendly pitches. If you don’t practice on your wickets, it would be difficult for the side” said Joshi.

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He also spoke about Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s chances of playing in the upcoming World Cup. With Jasprit Bumrah still not completely fit, his participation for the ODI World Cup later this year is still not clear.

Joshi said that in the absence of Bumrah, Bhuvi with his ability to swing the ball becomes an important bowler for Team India.

“Yes, I see him very much in the scheme of things as he has the experience to exploit conditions, but only if he can come up with some fine performances in the white ball events in the domestic season.”

“Team India needs an experienced bowler like Bhuvi, who can handle pressure, can vary his pace, swing the ball both ways and fox batters with knuckle deliveries. He is a handy batsman too. If you don’t have Jasprit Bumrah, and don’t know how long you are going to rest Mohammed Shami and how you are going to utilise his services, you don’t have Prasidh Krishna too,” said the former Indian spinner.

Joshi concluded by sharing his honest opinion on India’s chances of winning the World Cup at home. India last won the ICC World Cup in 2011 when India were the co-hosts. They lost to New Zealand in the 2019 World Cup semi-final to bow out of the tournament.

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India Has A Very Good Chance To Win The World Cup At Home: Sunil Joshi

“India has a very good chance to win the World Cup on home turf. Making it to the last four could be easy for Team India, but thereafter they need to play extraordinary cricket to lift the trophy. Not only India, but all other teams too have quality spinners, and our batters need to score against quality bowling attacks” concluded Joshi.

Sunil Joshi was also asked if domestic cricket performance is no more a criterion of selection for the India National Cricket Team. He responded that the performance in domestic is very important and the selectors don’t just look at the IPL performance for selection into the Indian team.

“No, I beg to differ on that. As a national selector, I always gave importance to performance in domestic cricket. Ajinkya Rahane played domestic cricket, that’s why he made a comeback. Sarfaraz Khan remained the highest run-getter in domestic cricket and got all the opportunities and then he didn’t perform and scored just six runs in three innings. Abhimanyu Easwaran and Priyank Panchal performed and got opportunities. We, as selectors, didn’t pick anyone only based on his performance in IPL. Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, and Umran Malik did exceptionally well and got the India cap. Look at Yashasvi Jaiswal, who performed in all three formats and got the chance to play for India,” Sunil Joshi said.

Also Read: ICC World Cup Schedule 2023 ODI, India 2023, Venue, PDF 2023. Date, Group, Match List, Time Table, Team List, Squad India

Virat Kohli | Rohit Sharma | Rishabh Pant | KL Rahul | Suryakumar Yadav | Sanju Samson | Shreyas Iyer | Yuzvendra Chahal | Jasprit Bumrah