Right balance

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced India’s 17-man squad for the Asia Cup. It comprises several star players and also sees the return of KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer. However, Yuzvendra Chahal was a notable omission whereas Sanju Samson also failed to make it to the final squad but will travel as a reserve player. While Samson failed to make the cut, Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma, uncapped in ODIs, are part of the squad. Many cricket-lovers feel Samson could have been included in the final 17. Sanju Samson’s fans and Sanju Samson himself might consider themselves slightly unlucky because his performances are good in ODIs as of now as well. He has an average of over 50 and he scored a fifty in the West Indies also. Also, big exclusion from the squad are veteran spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal. Instead, the selectors went for the left-arm trio of Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav. Kuldeep has had a fantastic 2023 in white-ball cricket, taking seven wickets in three matches with the best figures of 4 fir 6.