Ravi Bishnoi is one such candidate who can play all three formats for India: Saba Karim

Former India selector Saba Karim has backed emerging leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi to play all three formats. Giving further clarification on the same, he mentioned that there is no leggie representing India in Test cricket and Bishnoi has the potential to do well in this format.

While Ravi Bishnoi regularly featured for the Men In Blue in their limited-overs matches throughout this year including the Asia Cup, he has not been included for the ongoing home T20Is against Australia and the subsequent series against South Africa. Moreover, the leggie has been included in the list of standby players for the next month’s T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia.

We don’t see any leg spinner in the test match format these days: Saba Karim

“I would love to see him play in all three formats and somehow for some inexplicable reason, we don’t see any leg spinner in the test match format these days. But I would like to see the change coming in here and Ravi Bishnoi is one such candidate who can play all three formats and do well for India. But before that, he needs to play red-ball cricket for his state’s side and if he does well there it’ll add to his confidence and then the Indian selectors can think of playing him in all three formats,” said Karim while speaking on SPORTS18’s daily sports news show ‘SPORTS OVER THE TOP’.

“The kind of eagerness and ability he has shown, and on top of that, the skill set which he has is really admirable. Young in age and all that experience really helps in to grow in confidence and he can continue to do that in international level also,” he added.

Even though Bishnoi managed to find a place in the Indian T20I setup, it was always going to be an uphill task for him in making a mark in this year’s T20 World Cup squad as there is already cut-throat competition in the spin department in Ravindra Jadeja’s absence. India have options in three seasoned spinners – Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel and Yuzvendra Chahal.

It now remains to be seen whether the leggie will be included in India’s red-ball setup in the long run since senior leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal has never been in the scheme of things in this format.