NEW DELHI: The wait is finally over. India men’s senior selection committee chaired by Ajit Agarkar will pick India’s provisional squad for the upcoming Champions Trophy tomorrow (January 18) in Mumbai and they are set to face a happy headache while doing the same. While top-order is more or less clear, they need to find the right pieces for the middle-order puzzle. There are plenty of players in the mix for those 3-4 positions but Shreyas Iyer remains a no-brainer for the middle-overs period.
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With the right mix of caution and aggression, he has aced the 50-over game in the past and had a stellar 2023 ODI World Cup where he amassed 530 runs in 11 innings. The runs came at a healthy strike-rate and he hit two hundreds and three half-centuries during India’s campaign. The right-hander had a turbulent little period where he lost out on an annual contract but bounced back in emphatic fashion during the IPL where he led KKR to the title.
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There were three ordinary outings against Sri Lanka in the ODIs but he rediscovered the touch during the domestic season where he made substantial contributions, across formats, for Mumbai. 452 runs in five First Class innings were followed by 345 runs in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and 325 runs in five List A fixtures. He has the weight of runs behind him but more importantly has the game suited for the surfaces in Dubai. With spin expected to play a major role in the tournament, Iyer has what it takes to control the middle period of the game like he did during the 2023 ODI World Cup.
He has time and again reiterated that he is not fussy about batting positions and that flexibility will certainly come good. The England ODIs will definitely help coach Gautam Gambhir and captain Rohit Sharma to finalise composition of their middle-order, and it will make a lot of sense if it revolves around Iyer.
Yes, there are plenty of right-handers in the middle-order mix at the moment but India do have some flexible left-handers in the lower-order who they can seamlessly move around as per the match situation. Those movements were on display during the three ODIs vs Sri Lanka and it could well continue in the upcoming ODI assignments.
Axar Patel or Ravindra Jadeja? Or both?
India picked both the left-arm spin all-rounders for the T20 World Cup but only Axar played the Sri Lanka ODIs as Jadeja was rested. The selectors now need to take that tough call because Axar did exceedingly well in the T20 World Cup and looked good in the ODIs vs Sri Lanka too. Jadeja, on the other hand, last played an ODI back in November 2023.
It now remains to be seen whether the management moves on from Jadeja or carries both. It will be very difficult to ignore Axar because he lends a lot of balance to the Playing XI with his all-round abilities.
All the questions will be answered in a few hours’ time as the men who matter will get in a huddle to pick the squad for the multi-nation tournament.