mumbai: Skipper Suryakumar Yadav and his deputy Shubman Gill’s indifferent form is a massive concern but the national selection committee is unlikely to make any shocking changes when it picks the 15-member squad for next year’s T20 World Cup here on Saturday.
The BCCI would be at liberty to replace any of the named 15 till the start of the T20 World Cup on February 7. For the record, during the Champions Trophy earlier this year, Varun Chakravarthy replaced Yashasvi Jaiswal after slow tracks in Dubai were taken into consideration.
While nobody in BCCI is spelling it out, the global event in India could well be the last for Suryakumar as national T20 skipper. He is already 35 and has been out of form for the past one year.
Having endured a barren run for almost 14 months and across 24 games, Suryakumar is holding on to his place only because he is the captain.
The committee will also pick the T20 squad for New Zealand which will be the same as the one chosen for the T20 World Cup. For the time being, there aren’t any slots up for grabs although Gill’s position has repeatedly come under scanner while an in-form Yashasvi Jaiswal waits in the wings.
It remains to be seen if the selectors name Jaiswal as an extra player for the New Zealand series just to observe him in case he is needed during the mega-event to be co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka.
The reserve opener’s slot currently belongs to Sanju Samson, who was wrongfully displaced from his position when the selection committee and an important member of the team think-tank decided to fix something that wasn’t broken.
Had the T20 World Cup been six months away, there was every possibility of the selection committee looking at alternative options
for leadership.