Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra has added that the selectors gave precedence to past performances over recent ones while selecting the seamers in India’s squad for the 2024 T20 World Cup. He also added that T Natarajan might have earned a spot otherwise. His comments came after the selectors recently chose the 15-member Indian squad for the mega T20 event to be played in the West Indies and the United States where Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh and Mohammed Siraj have been selected as the three specialist seamers as well.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra said, “There are three fast bowlers – Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep and Siraj. Once again, the selectors thought they should go on continuity and ignore the recent form. They haven’t gone with recent-form bias or else they should have kept T Natarajan. They could have gone towards him, but they said they don’t need him, because Siraj has done well for them earlier, no matter how the current form is. Arshdeep’s form is also not looking very exciting but you will keep him because he has been doing well for the last little while.”
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However, he has also picked up 12 wickets at an economy rate of 8.78 in 10 T20Is. Arshdeep has taken 62 dismissals in 44 T20Is at a
slightly better economy rate of 8.63 as well. Aakash Chopra also added that the selection of four spinners implied that only three seamers could have been picked. However, he stated that the spinners could prove to be game-changers.
“You have two like-for-like players in Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel. Once you picked both of them and then when you want to take Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal along, you would take one fast bowler less, and that’s exactly what has happened. Day games, slightly softer pitches, and big grounds, they can be game-changers. You feel for Yuzi in any case. He has taken 200 wickets in the IPL and the most wickets in T20Is for India but has never got an opportunity in a T20 World Cup. So he will play this time. I am happy for him,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
