England vs India: 5 players who are unlucky to miss out from the Indian team for the last two Tests

England Lions v India A - Day Two
Prithvi Shaw got his maiden national call-up

The Indian selectors have named the Indian squad for the fourth and fifth Tests against England and have included rookies Hanuma Vihari and Prithvi Shaw in the side.

The Indian selectors, when they announced the squad for the series, announced it for the first three games and announced that the squad for the fourth and fifth game will be announced after the completion of the third Test. Now, they have retained 15 out of the 17 players from the initial squad and have shown the door to Murali Vijay and Kuldeep Yadav.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who was ruled out of the first three matches due to a back problem, failed to recover in time for the last two games.

Both Vihari and Shaw have been very consistent for their respective state sides and India A for a while now and have eventually got their deserved national call-up. Though they are rewarded for their performances, there are a few players who should have been picked but were missed out on selection.

Let us take a look at five players who were unlucky to miss out from the Indian side for the last two matches against England.

Squad: Virat Kohli (C), Dhawan, Rahul, Prithvi Shaw, Pujara, Rahane, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ashwin, Jadeja, Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, Shami, Umesh Yadav, Shardul Thakur, Karun Nair, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Hanuma Vihari.


Parthiv Patel

First Test Match - Australia V India
Parthiv Patel

With Wriddhiman Saha ruled out of action for a while due to an injury, the Indian selectors named Dinesh Karthik and Rishabh Pant as the wicketkeepers for the England tour.

Karthik, in all likelihood, might have played his last Test match for the country after he was replaced by Rishabh Pant for the third Test match in Nottingham. The Delhi southpaw impressed everyone with both bat and gloves and is likely to retain his place in the playing XI.

Karthik has had a nightmare in England and in spite of that, he has been named in the squad for the last two matches ahead of Gujarat wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel. Parthiv was unlucky to have missed out on selection for the first three games as he was the second-choice wicketkeeper for India in the tour of South Africa and after getting injured in the third Test, he was substituted by Karthik.

Suddenly, Parthiv has gone down the pecking order without playing enough cricket, which is very unfair.

Mohammed Siraj

England Lions v India A - Day Three
Mohammed Siraj

Mohammed Siraj has been a consistent performer with the ball in the Indian domestic circuit and was rewarded for his performances with a place in the Indian T20I side and has played three games so far without any success.

The right-arm pacer is a traditional red ball bowler who has the ability to keep the batsmen on their toes with some accurate swing and seam bowling. He had a fantastic India A tour of England where he picked 15 wickets in two matches and in the subsequent four-day unofficial Tests against South Africa A in Bengaluru, he picked up 14 wickets in just three innings.

He could have been given a try as the Indian pacers have been playing some non-stop cricket and their workload has to be managed if they want to remain injury-free.

Abhinav Mukund

England v India: 1st npower Test - Day Three
Abhinav Mukund

It is good to see someone like Prithvi Shaw getting picked to represent India. But, by doing so, the selectors have sent out a bad message to someone like Abhinav Mukund, who was in the scheme of things in the format.

Even in the last Test innings he played, he scored 81 against Sri Lanka before he made way for KL Rahul, who came back from an injury. They should have given the southpaw one last opportunity before trying out some other openers who are doing well in the domestic circuit.

Rajneesh Gurbani

Image result for gurbani sportskeeda
Rajneesh Gurbani

Rajneesh Gurbani is one of the main reasons why Vidarbha won the Ranji Trophy last season as who ran havoc with the ball in the knockouts. He has been very consistent so far as he has taken 71 wickets in 14 games at an average of 19.19 and a strike-rate of 37.9.

His 12-wicket haul including seven in the second innings against Karnataka in the semis and his hat-trick in the final against Delhi made a big difference for Vidarbha in winning the Ranji Trophy.

He is also in fine form in the ongoing Duleep Trophy as he took a seven-wicket haul for India Green last week and he will be a useful option in England, where the conditions favour him.

Mayank Agarwal

ECB XI v India A - Tour Match
Mayank Agarwal

2162 runs in 32 innings at an average of 67.56 per innings in a single domestic season (across all three formats) is the most by any batsman in India. Over the last couple of seasons, Karnataka opener Mayank Agarwal has been scoring runs on a consistent basis and still, he is yet to receive his maiden call-up.

He had a good tour of England with India A and followed it up in the series against South Africa A where he scored a double ton. What else should he do to get a chance in the Indian side?

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Edited by Rajdeep Puri