While Wriddhiman Saha is a logical choice as wicket-keeper, the Gujarat skipper had done enough against England and in Ranji Trophy final to warrant a place in the Test squad.
What made the contest between Ranji Trophy champions Gujarat and Rest of India for the Irani Cup interesting was the individual battle between wicketkeeper-batsmen — Parthiv Patel and Wriddhiman Saha.
It was all about who among the two will put up a better show as as India is slated to play five Tests (one against Bangladesh and four against Australia) at home. Though Saha's place was not really in danger, Patel was staking his claim to be at least in the reserves.
Looks like Saha has comfortably won this battle. The selectors sprang a surprise on Tuesday dropping Gujarat captain from the 16-member squad and bringing back Abhinav Mukund in his place. The Tamil Nadu batsman comes back to Test team after five years.
Patel had been impressive leading his team to its first ever Ranji Trophy title by scoring a 90 followed by a century in the second innings to beat Mumbai. Saha, on his comeback from injury, outdid his competitor scoring a match-winning double century in the Irani Cup at the Brabourne Stadium to assure his place in the XI.
Even then, Patel wasn't ruled out as the speculations went on that both players might make it to the squad for the one-off Test against Bangladesh next month in Hyderabad. He could have easily been accommodated in the squad as a back-up opener even if opener Murali Vijay returned from injury as Shikhar Dhawan is out of form.
But the big question is, why was Patel dropped despite having down well with the bat against England in the third, fourth and fifth Test recently on his return to international cricket after eight years?
Patel, who replaced Vijay in the England series, played aggressively putting on display his stroke-making abilities and mature batting as he scored 195 runs in four innings — including two half centuries. The first half century – 67 not out – was in his return game where he guided India to its second Test win in the series.
Not taking anything away from Mukund, the Tamil Nadu opener and skipper has been a prolific scorer in domestic cricket. This year too he scored heavily amassing 849 runs in 10 Ranji Trophy games. However, he flopped in the Irani Cup against Gujarat — eight & 19.
For chief selector MSK Prasad, Saha was the first choice wicketkeeper. He recently had said, "Parthiv's glove work has definitely improved. But Saha has got better hands and that's where he scores little more points than Parthiv. With today's batting (double century in Irani Cup tie), Saha showed why he is the No. 1 keeper-batsman in the country.
"When he came out to bat yesterday, the team was struggling at 63 for four and to take the game away from Gujarat is phenomenal. So it's a healthy competition between the two."
It is a tad unfair to drop someone like Patel, who performed when the team needed him and other openers flopped. Especially so, when the southpaw is flexible enough to bat where the team wants him to.
What defies logic is, when Parthiv has done well as the opener in the Tests against England, why bring in another batsman? He surely deserved another look into before the big series against Australia begins.
Patel is competitive and plays cricket the tough way and is known to dig in and put the grit on show. When you play the Aussies, these traits are invaluable. Bringing in Mukund and gauging his form in a one off Test against Bangladesh doesn't sound like smart thinking ahead of series against Australia.
Squad: Virat Kohli (captain), Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Karun Nair, Wriddhiman Saha (wk) , Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Jayant Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Amit Mishra, Abhinav Mukund and Hardik Pandya.
Pandya to lead India A vs Aus
All-rounder Hardik Pandya will lead India A in a three-day warm-up game against Australia at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai from February 16-18.
India A: Hardik Pandya (Captain), Akhil Herwadkar, Priyank Kirit Panchal, Shreyas Iyer, Ankit Bawne, Rishabh Pant, Ishan Kishan (WK), Shahbaz Nadeem, Krishnappa Gowtham, Kuldeep Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Ashok Dinda, Mohammed Siraj, Rahul Singh, Baba Indrajith.
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