“Everything happens for a reason,” was Baba Indrajith’s story update on Instagram, with a gif of moving clock, after South Zone’s squad for Duleep Trophy was announced on Tuesday. Tamil Nadu’s prolific run-getter’s name was missing from the Hanuma Vihari-led team and the decision to leave out one of the most consistent batters in the domestic circuit has raised plenty of eye-brows.
By the high standards he has set, it wasn’t a bumper outing for Indrajith in the 2022-23 Ranji Trophy but he again breached the 500-run mark and managed 505 runs in 11 innings at a healthy average of 50.50. Since 2021-22, the elegant right-hander has accumulated 1120 runs in the middle-order and the average continues to be in the higher 50s. Indrajith, who was part of the Vihari-led squad for 2022 edition of Duleep Trophy, scored a fluent hundred in the final vs West Zone too.
The 28-year-old has been knocking the India A door for more than a couple of seasons now with consistency in the longer formats and his omission from the South Zone squad defies cricketing logic. With the Indian Test team set to undergo transition in the upcoming World Test Championship cycle, Indrajith could well have been one of the options to explore in the middle-order, which could potentially have some spots up for grabs soon.
The selectors of the South Zone Associations, however, had other plans in mind during their meeting in Goa on Tuesday. They have restored faith in Vihari, who hasn’t played since fracturing his arm during the Ranji Trophy quarter-final vs Madhya Pradesh and didn’t have an impressive season with 490 runs from 14 innings at an average of just 35.
‘Natural to get frustrated’
“It is very natural to get frustrated at some point of time. I wouldn’t say I don’t get frustrated at all. It’s frustrating after a certain point because it becomes stale and you start to think where you are in life and how to take the next step. Definitely these thoughts do come in but it’s just a phase. After all this, only thing you can do is perform at the domestic level and hope you do really well so that you don’t miss out,” Indrajith had said to News18 CricketNext in a chat last year.
He continued to score runs but wasn’t getting picked for India A squads. The frustration for him is now bound to increase as he finds himself out of the South Zone squad, that too after scoring a hundred in final of the previous edition.
No place for 3-D Vijay Shankar
Since return from injury, Shankar has not put a foot wrong and followed his 488 runs in 9 Ranji Trophy innings, which featured three hundreds and two fifties, with a mighty impressive show in the Indian Premier League for runners-up Gujarat Titans.
Shankar scored the difficult runs for Tamil Nadu in the lower-order and looked in a very good space last season. The mindset and improved level of fitness was on display in the IPL too where he unleashed Shankar in an all new avatar.
Even after such a consistent show in the red-ball circuit for Tamil Nadu, the experienced Indian all-rounder’s name was missing from the squad sheet. The selectors have included talented TN batter Sai Sudharsan, another young batter Pradosh Ranjan Paul, spinners Sai Kishore and Washington Sundar in the 15-member squad.
In the last seven days, Central Zone squad, led by speedster Shivam Mavi, and Northeast Zone squad, led by Rongsen Jonathan, have been announced for the tournament which gets underway in Bengaluru on June 28. The remaining zones – North, West and East – need to submit their respective squads by June 15.
Who will represent DDCA?
With the entire senior selection committee, comprising of Gagan Khoda, Mayank Sidana, Anil Bhardwaj, sacked during the 2022-23 Ranji Trophy, it remains to be seen whether one of the members of Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) represents the DDCA or any office bearer performs the duty.
Nikhil Chopra-led CAC, also comprising of former India cricketers Gursharan Singh and Reema Malhotra, performed selection duties for the senior team and U-25s in absence of regular selectors but there is no clarity yet whether one of them would be part of the selection meeting for North Zone squad. As of Tuesday evening, there was no communication with the CAC regarding the Duleep Trophy squad selection.
South Zone squad: Hanuma Vihari (c), Mayank Agarwal (vc), Sai Sudharsan, Ricky Bhui (wk), KS Bharat (wk), R Samarth, Washington Sundar, Sachin Baby, Pradosh Ranjan Paul, Sai Kishore, V Kaverappa, V Vyshak, KV Sasikanth, Darshan Misal, and Tilak Varma
Central Zone squad: Shivam Mavi (c), Vivek Singh, Himanshu Mantri, Kunal Chandela, Shubham Sharma, Amandeep Khare, Rinku Singh, Akshay Wadkar, Upendra Yadav (vc), Dhruv Jurel, Saurabh Kumar, Manav Sathar, Saransh Jain, Avesh Khan, Yash Thakur
Northeast Zone squad: Rongsen Jonathan (c), Nilesh Lamichaney (vc), Kishan Lyngdoh, Langlonyamba, A.R. Ahlawat, Joseph Lalthankhuma, Prafullamani (wicketkeeper), Dippu Sangma, Jotin Pheiroijam, Imliwati Lemtur, Palzor Tamang, Kishan Sinha, Akash Kumar Choudhary, Rajkumar Rex Singh, Nagaho Chishi.
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