In a desperate bid to get their team combination right, the Indian cricket team summoned Karnataka all-rounder Stuart Binny as the 16th member of the Test squad ahead of the second Test, starting Thursday.
The official line from Indian team management is that Binny has just been added as the 16th member of the <g data-gr-id="15">squad</g> but he is not replacing anyone in the current squad.
The BCCI media release states, “All-rounder Stuart Binny will join the Indian Cricket Team before the second match of the three-match Test series in Sri Lanka.”
But it’s apparent that the 31-year-old veteran is very much in the scheme of things as far as playing XI for the second Test is concerned. With Irfan Pathan fading into oblivion due to injuries, the Indian Test team has long suffered due to the lack of seam bowling all-rounders and Binny is more of a desperate selection as there aren’t too many in the horizon.
Virat Kohli’s five-bowler theory needs a solid No 7 and Wriddhiman Saha as a specialist No
6 is something that the Indian team management needs to ponder upon a lot.