does chance to play for India comes on a platter, these days ??

In life, often we hear people say that they performed so well, but had no luck or were overshadowed by the efforts of somebody else.  One of my bosses used to say, that even for regular things he had to struggle, while others got them so easily – is life cruel to some !  is not the Q of the day .. .. at times life throws a bounty as today – when 5 Indian cricketers are making their debut in ODI.  – I had posted this on  July 23, 2021 detailing some of the players who were never lucky enough to play for India, despite possessing great talent. 

There could be no comparisons though !  - I have been following Cricket from 1975 when Clive Lloyd toured India and the great Isac Vivian Alexander Richards & Gordon Greenidge made their debuts ! in Test no. 745 at Bangalore and for India Hemant Kanitkar debuted.  Today in T2oI no. 1206 and 2nd match of the Series played at Colombo, India closed their innings at 132/5 with as many as 8 Lankans bowling !  .. ..

The Indian scorecard reads :  Ruturaj Gaikwad 21; Shikhar Dhawan 40; Devdutt Padikkal 29; Sanju Samson 7; Nitish Rana  9; -  Bhuvneshwar Kumar 13 and Navdeep Saini 1 remained not out .. .. 20 overs 132/5.  Yes, it is true – those not following IPL may not know some names and it has 4 batsman; 1 wicketkeeper batsman; 3  pace bowlers and 3 spinners .. ..  There are reasons though !

Today before the toss, a severely depleted India had to name four debutants for the second T20I, with batters Devdutt Padikkal and Ruturaj Gaikwad, plus allrounder Nitish Rana, and seamer Chetan Sakariya, all playing their first T20I.

With eight members of the squad unavailable for this game after having been placed in isolation as Krunal Pandya's first-line contacts, India could manage the remaining X1 as playing X1.   Prithvi Shaw, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, and both Pandya brothers are out. That left  Bhuvneshwar Kumar - who is a bowler who bats a bit - as high as No. 6 in their line-up.   Sri Lanka captain Dasun Shanaka having chosen to bowl first at the toss, could be feeling that they have done well in containing India to 132. Sri Lanka, meanwhile, made two changes to their XI. With their top-scorer from Sunday, Charith Asalanka, having picked up an injury, Sadeera Samarawickrama comes into the XI in his stead. Allrounder Ramesh Mendis makes his debut, replacing Ashen Bandara in the XI.

It is debuts’ galore in this Series.   In the first ODI : Ishan Kishan & Suryakumar Yadav made their debuts in ODI.   Then in the 3^rd there were 5 of them : Chetan Sakariya; Krishnappa Gowtham; Nitish Rana, Rahul Chahar and  Sanju Samson.  In the 1^st T20I – Prithvi Shaw and Varun Chakravarthy made their T2oI debuts and today there are 4 more earning International caps for India.

Prithvi Shaw, Suryakumar Yadav, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Ishan Kishan, Yuzvendra Chahal, K Gowtham, and Deepak Chahar are the eight players identified as close contacts of Krunal Pandya, who tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday. Although all eight have tested negative for the virus, they have still been ruled out of the ongoing T20I series against Sri Lanka. The BCCI didn't announce the names of the eight players in a media release sent out on Wednesday, but their identities became obvious once head coach Rahul Dravid told the host broadcasters that the Indians had been left with only 11 players to pick from in the main squad, and all 11 would be playing the second T20I, which had originally been scheduled to take place on Tuesday but had to be pushed back on account of the disruption caused by the pandemic.

The Indian selectors  have now added the five reserve bowlers who had been taken to Sri Lanka into the main squad, upon request from the team management. The five reserve bowlers are Ishan Porel, Sandeep Warrier, Arshdeep Singh, R Sai Kishore and Simarjeet Singh.

Though the composition is 6 bowlers and 4 batsmen + wicketkeeper, Dravid acknowledged that the balance of the team was compromised, but reiterated his faith in his men.

Before concluding  Indian team was hampered by injuries and more when Lloyd’s men toured India – in 1975 in  that Test of Viv Richard’s debut Hemant Kanitkar made his debut and in the next Parthasarathy Sharma; at Calcutta : Anshuman Gaekwad and Karsan Ghavri made their debuts.  When India toured New Zealand (and followed with a visit to West Indies) in 1976  :  Surinder Amarnath, Syed Kirmani & Dilip Vengsarkar made their debuts; when England toured India in 1977 – Yajuvindra Singh debuted;  in that historic tour of Pakistan in 1978, came the icon Kapil Dev; when Kalicharan team toured India in 1979 MV Narasimha Rao and Dhiraj Parsana played; in 1979 tour to England – Bharat Reddy and Yashpal Sharma debuted; against Kim Hughes Australia in 1979 32 year old Dilip Doshi and Shivlal Yadav and when Pakistan toured India Roger Binny debuted and in the same tour in Pongal test at Chepauk in 1980 Sandeep Patil debuted. 

.. .. and Devdutt Padikkal was born on July, 7, 2000 !! 

With regards – S. Sampathkumar
28^th July 2021 @ 22:00hrs.