Five players who won’t be a part of India’s England tour and WTC final

The much-anticipated squad of India for the World Test Championship has been declared by the BCCI and it had both, some surprising inclusions as well as exclusions. The final gets underway on June 18 against New Zealand at the Rose Bowl in Southampton. Here are five players who missed out on securing a spot for the high-octane inaugural final:

5. Hardik Pandya 

Perhaps, the biggest selection dilemma in front of the selectors was whether to include Hardik Pandya or not. However, as it turned out, he was excluded from the squad. Pandya’s back injury has not allowed him to perform his all-rounder duties for quite some time now. Even as his contribution with the bat matters, his inclusion in the team for only that role upsets the team balance, which seems to be the only reason behind him not being included.

4. Bhuvneshwar Kumar

A spate of injuries in his career has made Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s Test cricket journey difficult too. Despite making his debut in 2013, Bhuvneshwar has played merely 21 Tests to date, with 63 wickets under his name. He last wore the Test jersey when India toured South Africa way back in 2018. Although he recently made a comeback in India’s limited-overs team against England, the selectors were happy to exclude him and go with other options.

3. Prithvi Shaw

Arguably the most surprising exclusion amongst all was of Prithvi Shaw. He was under immense scrutiny for his technical shortcomings during India’s Australia tour, although Shaw came back with full force in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, where he had a record season. He carried that form into the IPL, making his case for retaining his place in the team strong. However, the selectors feel he needs to be fitter and improve his concentration to make his spot in the Indian Test team.

2. Kuldeep Yadav

Although his exclusion might not have been as surprising, it does come as a hard reality check for Kuldeep Yadav, who was billed as a promising contender in the Indian team not too long ago. He has not been able to create the same impact with the ball in any format of the game in the recent past and warmed the bench for nearly the entire Australian tour. Given that he has become slightly predictable for the batters and has been inconsistent, his inclusion in a challenging away series like England was difficult indeed.

1. T Natarajan 

To speak of consistent performance, one player whose stocks have shot up unbelievably high in the last half a year is T Natarajan. Having impressed through his IPL exploits, he was included as a net bowler for the Australian tour, where a host of injuries to frontline bowlers led to his inclusion and he notably went onto debut in all three formats on the same tour. However, a knee injury cut short his IPL 2021 journey, and as he is yet to recover, he missed out from India’s latest squad.