Team India didn’t have a great time at the Asia Cup 2022 as they made an exit in the Super Four round, failing to reach the finals. Nobody would have thought that the hot favorites to win the cup would go on to lose back-to-back games against Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
With the T20 World Cup almost knocking on the doors, Rohit Sharma’s side will have to step up in their game. They had a disappointing campaign in the last edition of the T20 title, and cannot afford to repeat the same this time.
To bring up the changes, they have to start with some names who have not managed to deliver up to the standards. Here, we take a look at three names who should be dropped from the Indian squad:
1) Avesh Khan
Avesh Khan was picked in the Indian squad in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah and Harshal Patel. But he has failed miserably to live up to expectations and has leaked runs at a rapid rate that isn’t acceptable. With Bumrah and Harshal being fit, he is likely to get dropped from the side automatically.
However, even if any injury opens up the slot, he should be kept away from selection for at least some time now. The selectors can rope in experienced Mohammed Shami who can do much better than Khan, that too, on the Australian pitches.
2) Rishabh Pant
The hype around Rishabh Pant is not fair, especially in white ball cricket, as he has barely played one or two good innings despite playing getting so many games under his hat. It seems that he is yet to decode the secret of limited-overs cricket and should be dropped before he improves himself.
The wicketkeeper batter was included in the XI for being left-handed in the right-handed dominating line-up. He was also asked to take pressure off other batters in the middle-order but he has failed to do so till now, throwing his wicket every time for nothing. The Men in Blue have far better options than him in the likes of Dinesh Karthik, Sanju Samson and Deepak Hooda.
3) Shreyas Iyer
Although Shreyas Iyer was picked as a reserve player, it makes no sense to waste a slot on him as he doesn’t fit into the setup of T20I cricket. He has more of an anchor who takes time before accelerating his innings, and to do the same, the Indian line-up already has the likes of Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli and Suryakumar Yadav.
All these players can player the anchor role well and too many anchors in the T20I side will hurt the team’s chances of posting a big total. They need someone who can hit big from ball one and take off the pressure during the middle phase of the innings. It would be better to include someone else instead of Iyer.
