India lost the inaugural World Test Championship final to New Zealand recently where both the batting and bowling unit failed miserably barring a few players. Apart from Mohammed Shami’s four-wicket haul in the first innings and Ishant Sharma’s 3/78, there was nothing to be considered as good. However, former India batsman Gagan Khoda believed Mohammed Siraj could have been added into the playing XI as well.
Notably, Jasprit Bumrah went wicketless in both innings whereas Ravindra Jadeja too couldn’t impress much and these are something that came under the scanner as well. However, the veteran has also said that Siraj should have played and he even believes that Shardul Thakur could have been added to the playing XI too, although he wasn’t even named in the 15-preliminary 15-member squad as well.
“Siraj should have played in place of Ishant Sharma. The conditions were suitable for swing bowling. No one was moving the ball apart from Mohammad Shami and there was no one who supported him. Siraj could have moved the ball better. Even Shardul could have been a good option. He moves the ball well,” Khoda told SportsKeeda in an interview.
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He also added that Bhuvneshwar Kumar should have been named in the Indian squad, instead of playing limited-overs series against Sri Lanka. His comments came as India’s pace attack failed to do well whereas Kumar has a great record in England, where the fast bowler has claimed 19 wickets which came at an average of 26.63 with two five-wicket-haul in five Tests as well.
“Bhuvneshwar is a good swing bowler and he should have been in the Indian team for the WTC final and England series,” he further added.
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However, Gagan Khoda has opened up about the young opener Shubman Gill who was added to the 15-member squad for the WTC Final, before the players like Mayank Agarwal and KL Rahul. He has said that Shubman Gill is a middle-order batsman and he is ‘not an opener’ and he should play in the middle order as well.
“It was not meant to be like this. Shubman Gill isn’t an opener. He is like VVS Laxman, he should bat in the middle-order. India should have picked Mayank Agarwal, who had only two bad Test matches. Even Prithvi Shaw was shown the door after just one failure in Australia,” Khoda was quoted as saying.
