The Indian team has historically had a tendency to be a ‘top-heavy’ team. The likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar and Sourav Ganguly have, traditionally, made the most headlines for their teams. Not to say that the middle-order batsmen and bowlers have flattered to deceive. Arguably, India’s most iconic player of the decade, MS Dhoni, made all the right headlines for his aggressive batting in the slog overs. The likes of Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh too dominated world cricket with their stellar performances. But even today, where the names of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli dominate most of the cricket new, one can’t help but feel that the middle-order batsman does a much less fashionable job.
Part of the reason for this situation is that there is a virtual musical-chairs situation going around the batting positions from 4 t0 6. Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav and Rishabh Pant have all made strong cases for their selection with their performances. Even fringe players like Sanju Samson and Shubman Gill have made the right noises in domestic cricket. In fact, former India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh strongly feels that one particular player has outperformed each of his competitors and strongly deserves a chance to showcase his talent.
“What wrong has Surykumar Yadav done?”-Harbhajan Singh
On Tuesday, the BCCI announced its teams for the upcoming India A team’s tour to New Zealand. While the likes of Gill, Samson,Prithvi Shaw and Hardik Pandya made it into the team, Harbhajan was disappointed at the omission of a particular player. ‘Bhajji’, as his fans call him, took to twitter to express his disappointment about Suryakumar Yadav’s omission from the squad. While Yadav did feature in the team for the One-Day matches, the selectors ignored him for the both of the four-day match squads. Bhajji was shocked that Yadav was being ignored despite his impressive performances in domestic cricket. He further went on to inquire if there are different rules for different players’ selection. Here is the tweet:
I keep wondering what’s wrong @surya_14kumar hv done ? Apart from scoring runs like others who keep getting picked for Team india india/A india /B why different rules for different players ???
— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) December 24, 2019
This is not the first time Harbhajan has been vocal about his dissent towards the selection committee. Back when the squad for India’s T20I team against the West Indies got announced, the off-spinner was upset at Sanju Samson’s axing from the squad. He echoed Congress MP Shashi Tharoor’s sentiments, claiming that the MSK Prasad led panel were “testing his heart”. He even mentioned that the selection panel needed a change.
I guess they r testing his heart ? #selectionpanelneedtobechanged need strong people there.. hope dada @SGanguly99 will do the needful https://t.co/RJiGVqp7nk
— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) November 25, 2019
Yadav, meanwhile, has been captaining the Mumbai team in the ongoing Ranjhi Trophy. Overall, he has scored 4920-runs in 73-first-class matches. He began his Ranjhi Trophy campaign on a good note, compiling a fine century against Baroda in his team’s 309-run victory. Where he has excelled the most, though, has been the Indian Premier League. Ever since joining his new franchise, Mumbai Indians, Yadav has been a mainstay of their batting order. He was their leading run-scorer in the 2018 edition of the tournament. In this year’s IPL, Yadav scored 424 crucial runs in his franchise Mumbai Indian’s victorious campaign.