Report: SuryaKumar Yadav In Line For A India Call-up For The Australian Tour

Former Indian chairman of selectors, MSK Prasad feels that it wouldn’t be a bad idea for the new selection committee should give an opportunity to Suryakumar Yadav in the Indian white-ball set-up in order to bolster the middle-order and also reward the Mumbai batsman for his amazing consistency in the past year or so.

With the Indian team set to tour Australia for six white-ball fixtures and four Tests, the focus will now be on the makeup of the middle-order ahead of the three ICC events in the upcoming years, something that has proved to be the Achilles Heel for the team in the past few years.

In the ongoing IPL, barring Manish Pandey, most of the performances from Indians have come from the openers. And, according to sources close to the selection committee, SuryaKumar Yadav is being looked at as the backup to Pandey in the Indian team.

“Surya has been performing consistently for the last three years. Had Rishabh Pant been performing consistently down the order, then a lot of problems would have been solved. But with Rahul grabbing his opportunities as a wicketkeeper, it may open the door for Suryakumar,” MSK Prasad was quoted as saying to The Times of India.

With Hardik Pandya not bowling in the IPL, it will be interesting to see what is the stance of selectors as far as the all-rounder’s spot is concerned. However, according to sources, Hardik not bowling in the IPL has more to with his workload management, similar to what we had seen last year when the all-rounder did not bowl much in the IPL preceding the World Cup

”It may be noted that he bowled very little in the last IPL before the World Cup. It could be that he has been asked to preserve himself or India’s duties. He could go to Australia as a late middle-order batsman but his bowling adds the edge,” said the source.

MSK Prasad added that Hardik’s bowling not only gives the team a real balance, but it is also something that differentiates the Baroda all-rounder from the other seam-bowling options like Vijay Shankar or Shivam Dube, who are more of batsmen who can bowl a bit.

The problem is the likes of Shivam Dube and Vijay Shankar are more of batsmen who can bowl a bit. We, as selectors, had told them to work harder on their seam bowling. But there has not been much improvement on that front,” MSK Prasad added.

Also Read- Virender Sehwag Absolutely Baffled By SunRisers Hyderabad As They Lose Against Kings XI Punjab From A Winning Position