India squad announced

[tweaker]

 

 

 

5 minutes ago, tweaker said:

 

possible playing 11

 

Jaiswal

Rahul

Sai

Gill

Nair

Pant

Reddy

Sundar

Bumrah

Siraj

Prasidh

I don't think the team management will back Eashwaran, so Rahul or Sai may open.

Gill will play at no 4.

Most probably Karun will play at no 5.

Reddy ,Pant,Sundar should be late middle order who can score when the top order collapses. 

Bumrah,Siraj,Prasidh ,Reddy should be the pace bowlers asd Sundar as the spinner.

 

Lots will depend on the form of Jaiswal, Gill ,Rahul ,Bumrah 

[SandeepMotta]

13 hours ago, pkmmamks said:

Karun 300 repeat coming up 

Let's just hope he doesn't drop catches and smile about it. 

[singhvivek141]

16 hours ago, Ravi_Shastri said:

Sai Sudarshan averages 39.9 in Fc cricket

Not some earth shattering record. 
 

except for a few like Labushagne, test averages always tend to be lower than FC

He is mostly picked on the promise of "potential" rather than actual performance.

 

Tbh...domestic batting cupboard is poor. There are very few young batters who have shown the composure to grind in Tests. Ankit Bawne & Paras Dogra are in late 30's. Rohan Kunnummal tapered off after promising start to the career.

Edited May 25, 2025 by singhvivek141

[tweaker]

10 hours ago, diga said:

Harsh punishment for a youngster... Sarfaraz should have been there 

Gambhir needed a reason to drop Sarfaraz.

He didnt select him in any of the five test in Australia. 

[BacktoCricaddict]

18 hours ago, vvvslaxman said:

What the hell is Eswaran doing in this line up? SHreyas Iyer should been in place of him

Typecasting. We need backup opener. AE is anointed as such.  Shreyss is MO, which is already set. 

[cowboysfan]

for me Prasidh vs SiraJ is a toss up but if we see flat pattas then both will be taken to the cleaners.

[Texan]

3 hours ago, singhvivek141 said:

He is mostly picked on the promise of "potential" rather than actual performance.

 

Tbh...domestic batting cupboard is poor. There are very few young batters who have shown the composure to grind in Tests. Ankit Bawne & Paras Dogra are in late 30's. Rohan Kunnummal tapered off after promising start to the career.

Actually, there are many in domestic cricket, but they don't get visibility if they don't play in the IPL. Just look at Sudharsan's TN teammates: Baba Indrajith has been consistently getting big runs in domestics, yet never got any chances at Test level. N Jagadeesan has done well too and also keeps wickets. There are many others like them as well.

 

Sudharsan made it thanks to IPL and one hundred in Aus against Aus A.

 

[Texan]

This team and captain have just been picked based on IPL form and records. It is a sad truth of Indian cricket that IPL performances count for selection across all formats. 

 

Shubman Gill, who doesn't deserve a place in the team based on his performances gets elevated to captain, while guaranteed selections who have been performing at Test level: Bumrah and Pant get neglected. If the logic is that Bumrah cannot be picked as captain as he might not play all 5 Tests, then what is the guarantee that Gill deserves to play all 5 Tests? Now we are forced to play him as he is captain, which means that even before we step into England, we have to think that we could be one batsman short. 

 

Neither Sarfaraz nor Harshit deserved to be dropped. They did decently well in the limited opportunities afforded to them. Both did not deserve to be dropped. Their replacements have no FC credentials, only IPL visibility. 

[deathmonger]

20 hours ago, Ravi_Shastri said:

Sai Sudarshan averages 39.9 in Fc cricket

Not some earth shattering record. 
 

except for a few like Labushagne, test averages always tend to be lower than FC

Sai is also 23 so that's not his max potential.

[pkmmamks]

9 hours ago, SandeepMotta said:

Let's just hope he doesn't drop catches and smile about it. 

On the back of his solid domestic performance and a rare comeback, I expect him to make less mistakes  

[BacktoCricaddict]

Here are some explanations on cricinfo. Some things (like Nair, Shami, Arshdeep) make sense. Others (like the Rana one) don't.

 

Why Arshdeep, Thakur, Nair? Why not Rana, Sarfaraz, Shami?

 

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/test-squad-why-india-picked-karun-nair-and-arshdeep-singh-and-left-out-sarfaraz-khan-and-mohammed-shami-1487294

 

As for why Sai, looks like the performances against A-teams clinched the deal.

 

Did Sai Sudharsan get picked on IPL form?

 

Sai Sudharsan does seem to have an underwhelming first-class record: 29 matches and average under 40. Having said that, he has excited almost everyone who knows batting. He has a hundred against the touring England Lions and one when playing away against Australia A. He has a county hundred as well, albeit on a flat Trent Bridge track.

 

"Last year when England Lions came, he played the A tour," Agarkar said. "I watched it. He got runs there as well so it's not like he's not got runs in red-ball cricket. We've not picked him because of IPL. We've known he's a terrific red-ball player. He's shown the right temperament and seems to have the game to succeed at the top level. Once he plays we'll probably get to know a bit better, but seems to have the goods. I don't think his IPL performances have made us pick him for Test cricket. We've been looking at him for a while, at least since I've been here, for a couple of years, but there's never been any place in the team to pick [new] guys. Now that we've had this opportunity [he] certainly deserves it."

 

[bowl_out]

4 hours ago, tweaker said:

Gambhir needed a reason to drop Sarfaraz.

He didnt select him in any of the five test in Australia. 

What exactly did he leak? There were some random reports but no clear mention of the repercussions of his actions.

[bowl_out]

1 hour ago, Texan said:

Actually, there are many in domestic cricket, but they don't get visibility if they don't play in the IPL. Just look at Sudharsan's TN teammates: Baba Indrajith has been consistently getting big runs in domestics, yet never got any chances at Test level. N Jagadeesan has done well too and also keeps wickets. There are many others like them as well.

 

Sudharsan made it thanks to IPL and one hundred in Aus against Aus A.

 

True that. IPL does give visibility for selection. In Sai's case, he is picking more on potential and perceived technical correctness which might help in England.

 

Baba Indrajith was in KKR but barely got any chances. Jaggi got limited chances, but didn't cash in. He needed at least one 50+ knock in the chances he got.

[vishalvirsingh]

On 5/24/2025 at 2:41 PM, SandeepMotta said:

Harshit rana should have been in the squad.picking Shardul ahead of Rana is a brain fade moment.

Pace bowling all-rounders: Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shardul Thakur

NKR has started bowling well that indicates he is the preferred option so it means they have taken shardul to carry drinks. NKR will get very limited overs - may be 8 overs in a day to bowl and he may get one wicket - which will be decent performance. as far as batting goes NKR is one level better than Shardul. Since they selected both - it indicates confusion , it indicates selectors have let gambhir take the final decision who will be in the 11.

Spin bowling all-rounders: Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar

In England only 1 spinner will play in the 11. if 2 spin track is offered and pitch turns england will play into our strength. Our kuldeep and washie/jaddu will finish the test in 3 days. All 3 are good but understand you have to take jaddu and kuldeep or washie and kuldeep or kuldeep and jaddu- only 2 spinners in england. there would be tests in which a SPinner would not get a single wicket or may be a no 10 batsman whi is gifting his wicket away. Why not harshit rana

Specialist spinner: Kuldeep Yadav

Pacers: Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh. 

bhai if akash plays he will beat the batsmen 15 times and we will again say Unlucky bowler.........bhai rana bowls some game changing heavy bouncers which fetches him wickets. JAAT ka chora hai, i am a jaat , he is genetically built to stretch when he is challenged. when he will be challenged he will bowl his best bouncer and that will get him wickets Or he will HURT English batsmen.

selcting Karun ahead of sarfaraaz was a correct decision.

@agarkar i am surprised agarkar who was a fast bowler not picking Harshit Rana specifically when Rana did a fair job in Tests in Australia. is RANA in additional pacers flying.

[vishalvirsingh]

i still have a feeling harshit rana and Khaleel will suceed in india A matches and kind of make their way into the indian Team

i trust both these guys are good enough and have the capability to bowl that one wicket taking ball. 

akash can be a work horse who will continue to beat batsmen and bowl multiple overs but after the match what counts is who gets the wickets.

VO jaffa ball kaun fankta hai---------boom, harshit rana, khaleel, Siraj and Prasidh- these guys can create a JAFFA ball even with a semi new ball. Boom ,Prasidh and Harshit create JAFFA's very often.

arshdeep ki jaffa ball first 4 overs mein hoti hai jab swing karti hai , he has to get the new ball if he is playing in indian 11.

Akashdeep good line n length maintain karta hai ..khatarnak jaffa ball nahi bowl karta.  He is a work horse and can ball 6 overs long spells.

arsh and anshul kambhoj are swing bowlers and can swing the ball well , they need a new ball to operate.

[Sooda]

On 5/24/2025 at 7:13 PM, vvvslaxman said:

I think Iyer is being sidelined for no reason. Do they have beef with him. He did well across the formats in domestic

 

Have to be realistic - can't take a 20 man squad; he was rightly kept out of test side for years and there are others, again rightly, ahead in pecking order based on form in FC and potential. The only spot he could have taken was Nair's. Heck even Sarfaraz didn't make it. And that's not accounting for people like Indrajith who have been excellent FC bats over recent years, if not so much last season 

 

Saying all that, I do think Iyer should have captained the A team 

 

 

[vvvslaxman]

37 minutes ago, Sooda said:

 

Have to be realistic - can't take a 20 man squad; he was rightly kept out of test side for years and there are others, again rightly, ahead in pecking order based on form in FC and potential. The only spot he could have taken was Nair's. Heck even Sarfaraz didn't make it. And that's not accounting for people like Indrajith who have been excellent FC bats over recent years, if not so much last season 

 

Saying all that, I do think Iyer should have captained the A team 

 

 

 

Player with some sort of international experience is valuable in a 5 test tour like this.  I think India will go through several and long iterations before finding the nucleus. Not easy like how we replaced Dravid with Pujara,  Tendulkar with Kohli,  Sehwag with Vijay. Although they were not as good as the OGs they still had Test match temperament because T20 was not that crazy back then.  There is no real incentive for players to be good in Tests anymore other than central contract. Look at Pandya., Bhuvi. 

[rkt.india]

Iyer is not a test player.

[coffee_rules]

Why is Gill captain? Bumrah should be. 

[StraightDrive26]

On 5/24/2025 at 6:38 PM, vishalvirsingh said:

 

 

Gill (c)

Pant (VC)

Jaiswal 

Rahul 

Sai Sudharshan 

Karun  

Shardul

Jadeja 

Jasprit 

Arshdeep 

Siraj 

 

Nitish 

Easwaran - BAD SELECTION.  Going by the Past, i am 100% sure, Team will not play Easwaran. lets see easwaran scored in india A games. I am quite sure that He will fail as in the past. easwaran may have scored big runs in domestic cricket but he has never performed even in tour games so that he can actually push for his case in TESTS. Have they Picked easwaran just to go and deliver water .  they should have PICKED " Harshit RANA or Shreyas IYER" , i would have been sure that they may get at least 1 game to play.

Washington - is he going to be played ahead of JADDU? if yes pick him.

Kuldeep - will he get a turning track in england, there is no LOGIC to pick 3 spinners on a tour to ENGLAND. England may play no spinners in their 11 and play 4 pacers and 1 medium pace AR. HARSHIT RANA should have been picked ahead of Kuldeep. 

Jurel

Prasidh 

Akash- is akash deep better than Harshit RANA, see the bowling figures in india -australia Series.

That's ridiculous about Easwaran. The guy hasn't got a single Test for India despite performing well in domestics for years. This is based on couple of tour games? No player should be discarded without giving a fair chance. 

 

Washington Sundar has been as a replacement for Ashwin. Ashwin did not play a single Test on India's last tour to England, that does not mean he should not be picked. 

 

Kuldeep needs to be picked as well as he is by far India's best Test spinner currently. The problem is that we have no confidence in our batting, so we will not play him in the playing XI. He is an attacking spinner and will surely do well if picked against England. 

 

Akashdeep is a difficult one, I think he is only picked because he can swing the ball. Harshit has pace but don't think he is a swing bowler. I feel Akash might not even get a game this series. Siraj, Prasidh and Thakur will join Bumrah at least for the first Test. 

 

I still feel NKR should not play just as a batter. I will play Nair in the middle order as he has the most experience playing on these pitches.

 

Jaiswal

Rahul

Sai Sudharshan

Gill

Nair

Pant

Jadeja

Thakur

Prasidh

Bumrah

Siraj

 

Seems a better playing XI with four pacers, one spinner and 6 batters. Playing NKR and Thakur together will be an overkill as the former isn't a better batter than Nair.

Edited May 26, 2025 by StraightDrive26