Team India’s star middle-order batsman Hanuma Vihari, who is known for his technically sound batting skill, was not selected in the 15-member squad for the West Indian tour. Hanuma Vihari who was once a regular player for foreign tours, was very disappointed on not being able to make it to the squad for the West Indies tour.
The 29-year-old batter played his last match for India in July 2022 against England in Birmingham. Since then, he has not been selected on the side and has now decided to open up and speak. In total, he has played 16 tests for the team.
Hanuma Vihari is disappointed
In an interview with The Indian Express, Hanuma Vihari was quite dejected after getting dropped for the West Indies Test tour. Hanuma Vihari said that he wasn’t given any reason for his omission from the national team.
“Definitely, there was disappointment. I didn’t find a reason why I was dropped, and it was the only thing that was bothering me. Nobody really contacted me and told me the reasons why I was dropped,” said Hanuma Vihari.
It took some time and I have gone through ups and downs, and I’m not worried about it now. I’ve put aside my personal side of things and I don’t take too much stress about whether I’m in the Indian team or not. There are other matches to win and it is about winning the trophies,” he added.
Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal to open
On the other, it is almost confirmed that the team will have a new opening pair in the first test match of the upcoming test series against the West Indies. The skipper Rohit Sharma will be joined by IPL star batter Yashaswi Jaiswal, who will replace the ace batsman, Shubman Gill.
Magnificent Yashasvi proves his candidature.
Jaiswal had been amongst runs in the white ball format recently. he scored 625 runs in the IPL this year. He had an average of 48 with scoring rate of 163.61. He also averages over 80 in his first 26 First Class innings. Yashasvi also had a successful period of domestic red-ball cricket, making 265 in the second innings of the Duleep Trophy Final last year.
Shubman Gill to bat one down
In absence of Cheteshwar Pujara, Shubman Gill himself asked coach Rahul Dravid if he could bat at number 3. In a recent press conference just before the start of the first test in West Indies, Rohit Sharma said,
“Gill will play at number 3 because Gill himself wants to play at number 3, He discussed with Rahul (Dravid) that I have played all my cricket at 3 and 4. I think I can do better for my team if I bat at number 3. And it is good for us too because it becomes an opening combination of left and right,” said Rohit Sharma.
“So I think we will try to do this and hopefully this will go on for a long time. Because we have been looking for a left-hander for many years. So now that we have got that left-hander, let’s hope he performs well for the team. And he can really make that spot his own,” he added.