5 Deserving Players Who Missed A Place In Test Squad Against South Africa

5 Deserving Players Who Missed A Place In Test Squad Against South Africa; Well, after a handful of chances, the opening batsman KL Rahul was dropped from the team for his poor show. With the series being hosted in India, the Indian fans and experts expected that there would be quite a few call-ups in the line. However, it was only Shubman Gill, who received the call-up, as the regulars in the team retained their places.

Meanwhile, we figured out 5 players, who are deserved to receive a call-up. A lot of youngsters displayed high-quality performances in the recent domestic season. We picked out 5 cricketers, who are deserving to get the nod. Here are they.

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5 Deserving Players Who Missed A Place In Test Squad Against South Africa:

5. Srikar Bharat:

Making his first-class debut at the age of 19 against Kerala, Bharat has been one of the consistent run-getters for Andhra in the last few years. He made rapid strides both as a keeper and as a batsman at the domestic level. 2014/15 was Bharat’s breakthrough season where he scored 758 runs in Ranji at a healthy average of 54.14. He followed it up in the next seasons as well.

4. Abhimanyu Easwaran:

Abhimanyu Easwaran is making the noise at the right time in Indian domestic cricket. Just when the Indian selectors are in search for an opening batsman to replace KL Rahul,  Abhimanyu Easwaran delivered a timely knock to catch the eyeballs of the selectors, who were present in the ground when scored a brilliant knock.

Easwaran, whose average has never dipped below 40 in each of the five domestic seasons (since 2015), was drafted into the India A after a prolific Ranji Trophy 2018-19, in which he scored 861 runs in 6 matches with an average of 95.65. The score of 153 in Duleep trophy game would work in his favour.

3. Navdeep Saini:

One of the consistent performers for India in domestic cricket, who recently made his debut in shorter versions of the game. Saini has been performing with the red ball for the past few years. In addition, Navdeep Saini can bowl with an accurate pace and line.

He is a hit to deck hard bowler who can swing the ball both ways. If Saini grooms well than it will benefit India with a good pool of quality fast bowlers for International cricket. Especially, with ICC Test Championship.

Impressed with his skill-set, recently, the Indian team management has decided to keep Navdeep Saini as a net bowler for the two-Test series against the West Indies. He has earlier been the Indian team’s net bowler and a cover for Bhuvneshwar Kumar during the ICC World Cup in England as well.

2. Priyank Panchal:

The flamboyant batsman was expected to be one of the choices for the selectors to try out in the home Test against South Africa. .After a stellar season with Gujarat back in 2017, higher honours came in the form of call-ups to the India ‘A’ team – a major accomplishment for a previously unknown batsman.

He has scored 6153 runs in 86 FC matches with 21 centuries and 23 fifties with a highest score of 314* and an average of 47.33. The last season wasn’t the first time Panchal had a dream run. Two seasons back, he helped Gujarat to their maiden title with a mammoth 1310 runs from 10 matches, falling just 105 runs short of VVS Laxman’s record of most runs in a season.

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Once again, he had a fantastic run in the last season, which could push the selectors to have a look at him.  He already faced world-class bowlers when he was with India-A side.

1. Hardik Pandya:

The flamboyant all-rounder is expected to be back in the side after missing out the on in West Indies. However, the selectors didn’t consider him, as they are happy with the current all-rounders Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja alongside Hanuma Vihari, who can bowl if needed for the team.

Hardik Pandya had a stellar series in overseas series in England, South Africa and in Australia. However, the board didn’t include him in the West Indies and followed the same for South Africa series as well. The addition of Pandya would have been great for India, as he can bring the t kind of balance to the side.

Perhaps, the niggle issues in his back could be the main reason behind his exclusion from the Test team. However, he was included in the 3-match T20I series by Pandya would have liked to see his name on the chart.