India's Test Reserves Lost Chance To Prepare For T20 World Cup

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Five members of India's extended Test squad, who were left out of the 15-member squad for World Test Championship (WTC) final, would have spent two months without competitive cricket by the time Test series against England starts in early August.

Four of these - Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, and KL Rahul - are adept at white ball cricket but would instead be watching from the confines of their hotel rooms in England another Indian team playing white ball cricket in Sri Lanka.

The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has forced teams to send extended squads as travel has become difficult due to the long and mandatory quarantine periods. While the Indian Test squad will be busy with the WTC final (June 18-22) and a five-Test series in August-September, a limited-overs team will be playing an ODI and a T20I series in Sri Lanka from July 13 to 25.

The white ball series is an opportunity for players to stake claim in the squad for T20 World Cup to be held in October-November and it will be interesting to find out how missing an opportunity to prove themselves will impact the chances of Sundar, Patel, Thakur and Rahul.

Sundar, considered a white-ball specialist before his contributions in the Test series wins in Australia and at home against England, turned him into a Test player, could lose a chance to represent India at the World Cup since India have picked six spinners for Sri Lanka. Those six include Krunal Pandya and Krishnappa Gowtham who are all-rounders like Sundar.

Axar Patel too finds himself in the same category of an all-rounder in T20 cricket and unless Ravindra Jadeja, who too could be in the T20 World Cup squad, gets injured or goes out of form, the Gujarat left-arm spinner will sit out all Test matches in England.

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