The prodigiously talented right-hand batsman from Punjab has secured the opener’s role in India’s 15-man squad (pruned from 24) announced this Tuesday (June 15) for the ultimate finale in Southampton against New Zealand, starting Friday (June 18).
Agarwal has lost his place to Gill after the latter’s emergence since the successful tour of Australia Down Under and his own ouster from the playing XI during the same trip. The 30-year-old had performed exceedingly well pre-pandemic in India’s WTC league campaign. However, he lost his form thereafter and looked technically out of sorts against the Aussie quicks.
There was no place for left-arm spinner Axar Patel either despite his breakthrough series against England in February-March. The debutant took 27 wickets from his 3 Tests at an average of just 10.59. But, given the conditions in the UK, the team management and selectors don’t think they’ll have to look beyond Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja for spin options unless injury forces one or two of those out.
The rest of the 15-member squad was on expected lines, with India retaining their first-choice XI and keeping back-ups such as Wriddhiman Saha, Hanuma Vihari, Umesh Yadav, and Mohammed Siraj also involved.
It is understood that the rest of the Indian touring members – KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan, Arzan Nagwaswalla – have been sent to London along with their families, due to the COVID-19 protocols.
These released players stated Cricbuzz in a report, “have been advised that they can watch the match only from the stands and not join the players during the final.” The Indian move is in line with what the Kiwi selectors and team management has also done with their squad and players before the WTC final.
The report further informed of complaints and questions from the Indian touring contingent regarding the stringent bio-security bubble in place at Southampton after six members of the New Zealand team were allowed to travel to a nearby golf course. This, despite the Black Caps also being put up in the on-site hotel facility like Indian players and their family members.
Cricbuzz reported, Trent Boult, Tim Southee, Henry Nicholls, Mitchell Santner, Daryl Michell and physio Tommy Simsek had gone to play golf on Tuesday morning. And even though the golf course is housed in the same premises as the Rose Bowl, the Indian team had raised concerns, questioning whether the rules applied are same for both teams?
“The players and families have all been formally told not to move out of their respective floors inside the hotel unless it is for visiting the ground. Now, this morning we came to know six Kiwis playing in the golf course,”
a member of the Indian team was quoted as saying.
On its part, though, the ICC has clarified that there was no bubble breach from the Kiwis and that, since the Indians have completed their well-implemented quarantine phase, they are also allowed to move around freely within the ground facility, which includes the golf course.
Notably, the Indians had to face full-fledged 10-day isolation since India is one of the red-listed countries by the UK government within the pandemic, whereas their Kiwi counterparts didn’t require extended isolation because they arrived from a green-listed nation such as New Zealand. After being in ECB’s bio-bubble for the two-Test series versus England, New Zealand players were shifted to the ICC bubble on Monday (June 14).
