India named their squad for the Asia Cup and not surprisingly, a few players made comebacks. KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer, Jasprit Bumrah and Prasidh Krishna were called back after they spent time away from the team recovering from long-time injury issues.
However, KL Rahul now has a fresh niggle. Forget this niggle, on what basis has he made it back into the Indian team? What is his recent run of scores in one-day cricket? The same questions should be asked of Shreyas Iyer.
Both Rahul and Shreyas walked in the Indian squad despite having been out of competitive action for more than six months. Rahul last played for the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 in May of this year, when he suffered a thigh injury. And now it appears that he has a new ailment. Shreyas has been out since March with a back injury. He most recently competed in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at home.
There is no denying the batting duo's talent, but the risk of them being rusty heading into the World Cup remains. They only have a three-match ODI series against Australia after the Asia Cup before competing in the ICC event.
Did India miss a trick by not introducing Tilak Varma into the ODI mix earlier? Is this an instinctive call? What's Suryakumar Yadav's role in the side now?
India haven't yet announced a preliminary World Cup squad. The deadline is September 5, which means there are just two matches for the selectors to analyse who could make it to the side. They will have three more weeks after that to make as many changes as they like.
Akshay Ramesh and Saurabh Kumar join Rajarshi Gupta in another enthralling debate on the Sledging Room.
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