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India trail the five match ODI series 2-0 and this game in Melbourne against Australia could well shut them out of the series. But that’s not keeping the Indian skipper from staying true to his word and giving more of his youngsters a look-in on this tour.
Ravi Ashwin and Manish Pandey have both been left out of India’s XI with Gurkeerat Singh Mann and Rishi Dhawan earning their India caps.
Specialist bowler and batsman out for two all-rounders? How will this work for India? Who are these two new players? What can they bring to the table.
Scroll down for all your answers.
Gurkeerat Singh
India’s hunt for a player who the captain can bank on to bowl a handful of overs day in and day out and score crucial runs with the bat – a role Yuvraj Singh played to perfection during his heydays – continues into 2016. It is in the pursuit of finding that bankable all-rounder the national selectors have drafted in Gurkeerat Singh into the Indian team.
An aggressive middle-order batsman and a handy off-spin bowler, Gurkeerat comes fresh off his maiden double century in the Ranji Trophy and picked up nine-wickets in the following match. While he forced his way into the Indian Test team on the back of these performances, Mann is yet to get an opportunity to prove himself.
Trivia: Gurkeerat Singh has scored 210 runs in five innings against ‘A’ sides of international teams at a striker-rate of 102.44.
Gurkeerat SinghMS Dhoni is my batting role model because we play very much at the same batting order. I relate to his game a lot and I earnestly watch him bat to learn from him.
Rishi Dhawan
Rishi Dhawan, the Himachal Pradesh all-rounder, has been part of the domestic cricket circuit since 2007, but it is only in the last two-three seasons he has emerged as a contender for a place in the Indian team. A regular wicket-taker, it is only in the last twelve months that his batting has improved several notches; in the year 2015 he excelled with the bat in both the Ranji Trophy and in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, scoring plenty of runs at a good pace too.
Those who have followed Dhawan closely will be aware that there are two sides to his bowling - there are days when he can prise out even the best batsman in the opposition ranks, and then there are days when he cannot get his body alignment and radar right and ends up spraying the ball over the place. The Indian team will be hopeful that if and when he gets to wear the Indian cap, he gets his radar right on more days than not.
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