Does Suryakumar Yadav deserve a place in India's World Cup team?

India's confused team management still looking for answers

By Anis Sajan

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Suryakumar Yadav has failed repeatedly in the one-day format. — AP

Published: Tue 15 Aug 2023, 12:20 AM

After the heartbreaking semifinal defeat to New Zealand in the 2019 50 Overs World Cup, cricket pundits slammed India's lack of clarity in team selection, especially the number four position.

Now less than two months before the start of the World Cup, the team management has still not managed to zero in on one player for the number four slot.

Of course, the top three — Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli — pick themselves in the squad.

But despite having so much talent, captain Rohit and coach Rahul Dravid are still scratching their heads to solve the number four puzzle.

Yes, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant's injury setbacks have compounded their problems.

But India would not have been in this precarious position if they had identified and groomed the proper backups.

Sanju Samson is a curious case. The Kerala wicketkeeper-batsman, who has played just 13 matches since making his ODI debut in July, 2021, averages 55.71 in the 50 overs format for India with an astonishing strike rate of 104.

During the same period, the Indian team played 37 one-day internationals, which goes to show the lack of clarity from the team management and the selectors.

But Suryakumar Yadav, who also made his ODI debut in July 2021, has played 26 matches. The flamboyant right-hander, though, averages only 24.33 in this format.

Despite his failures, the Mumbai Indians batter has been backed by the team management which has clearly failed to see that he is primarily a T20 specialist.

Even his record in domestic 50 overs matches is pretty ordinary, scoring 3365 from 128 games at just 33.98.

Samson has definitely done more than Suryakumar in this format for India to earn the trust of the captain and the coach.

But he doesn't seem to be their choice for ODI World Cup.

Similarly in the bowling department, India still don’t know their main spinners.

Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin are the front runners but there is no clarity until now.

Jadeja will definitely play because of his batting skills, but India by now should have also known their two other spinners for the World Cup.

But there still seems to be competition for the two remaining slots in this department. That's not an ideal situation as a player can only play with freedom once his position in the team is assured.

Now the Asia Cup (August 30-September 17) will offer the last chance to the Indian team to finalise their squad for the World Cup which will start on October 5 in India.

But who knows India might bring in another 3D player (remember Vijay Shankar in 2019?) in the form of Tilak Varma after the T20 series loss to the modest West Indies which even missed the bus to the ODI World Cup.

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