Reports of Team India wanting Prithvi Shaw and Devdutt Padikkal as backup openers for the upcoming Test series against England had started doing the rounds ever since Shubman Gill was confirmed to be ruled out due to an injury. However, the national selection committee is reportedly not happy with the team management’s lack of clarity and has denied its request to send Shaw and Padikkal to England.
Both Shaw and Padikkal are currently in Sri Lanka with the limited-overs squad ahead of the ODI and T20I series against the hosts. Both batsmen have been in fine form over the past few months and were amongst the runs in the Vijay Hazare Trophy followed by the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021.
Team India’s request to have them travel to England has left many baffled as Mayank Agarwal and Abhimanyu Easwaran are already part of the Test squad as backup openers. Former India cricketer and ex-national selector Saba Karim said the team management’s decision to call up Shaw and Padikkal was not justified as it will create insecurity among players.
“I will never feel it is justified because if you send an additional replacement the players already in the team will feel extremely insecure. There is no need to create such insecurity,” said Karim on India News.
“I feel you have to show some faith in the job done by the selectors. I still cannot believe that such a demand would have come from the team management. But if it has come, I feel it is not justifiable,” he added.
Apart from Agarwal and Easwaran, KL Rahul is also a specialist opener who is part of the squad and can partner with Rohit Sharma at the top. While he termed the decision to call Shaw and Padikkal not justified, he admitted there could be some reason why the team has asked for additional openers.
“But the question here is why they need a replacement when they have so many openers in the reserve. It is difficult to say from here what could be the reason behind the team management asking for a replacement,” he said.
The former India cricketer cited the example of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy last year and said the Indian team’s deman of extra openers might have been to deal with injury issues later on the ongoing tour of England and be on the safer side.
“It is possible that they might be feeling that the situation that was created in Australia, a similar thing could happen here as well. So they want an opener to be in the team as Shubman Gill has come back and it is a long series, there are going to five Test matches played and if you need someone in between, the player will not be able to play because of quarantine,” said Karim
