Navdeep Saini took five wickets in the second match against West Indies A. India A have taken a 3-0 lead in the five-match series. (Photo: WWW.IPLT20.COM)For a fair measure of the last three years, Navdeep Saini has been the nearly man, always there or thereabouts the national squad, his name repeatedly cropping up at selection committee meetings, but never considered beyond the reserve stock. Twice he travelled alongside Jasprit Bumrah and Co, for the South Africa series at the beginning of last year and most recently, during the World Cup. On both instances, he left such an impression on Virat Kohli and the support staff that they kept raving about him. But the big break wasn’t to be.
In his own assessment, Saini could have performed better during the A tours to England and New Zealand last year, the two assignments earned him just 10 wickets at an average of 52 in four first-class games and just three wickets at 41.33 in the limited-over games. At other times, when he has fared well, bowled with heart and fire, the numbers didn’t reflect his labours. Like the last domestic season, wherein Saini consistently clocked 145kmph, touched 152, but could only bargain 14 wickets at 34 and a sole five-wicket haul. He was the most penetrative pacer for Royal Challengers Bangalore, picking 11 wickets, but his efforts were lost in the team’s miserable season. “I just need one breakthrough series,” he had told the IPL website.
The A tour to the West Indies could well be that elusive, eye-catching series, the 50-over-leg of which India has already pocketed. Saini wasn’t picked for the first match, wherein India opted for a spin-heavy attack. But recalled for the second game at North Sound, he wheedled out his maiden five-for, scything through the middle order. Apart from No 11, Akeem Jordan, all of his victims had a fair bit of international experience—the highly-rated Sunil Ambris, Andre Russell’s replacement in the World Cup, has featured in six Tests and eight ODIs, Shane Dowrich has three Test hundreds, Jonathan Carter and Rovman Powell have played 67 ODIs between them.
Two of them — Powell and Dowrich — were bowled, beaten for pace, the Antigua Observer notes. He had opener Ambris pinged leg-before with a nip-backer, his stock ball. To an extent, the dismissal reflects his biggest strength, the ability to jag the ball back off a good length into the right-hander at pace. A bit like Mohammed Shami, without the latter’s slitting sharpness, but a few yards quicker than the Bengal paceman.
The five-wicket haul was as timely as it could get, with the selectors in a mood to experiment post the World Cup ouster, besides being keen on workload management. Hence, Bumrah wouldn’t travel to the Caribbean. One of Bhuvneshwar Kumar or Shami could also be rested, and Saini could be in the scheme of things. Left-arm seamer Khaleel Ahmed, who has already featured in eight ODIs and nine T20Is, too kept the selectors interested, nabbing four wickets and keeping a tight lid on the scoring rate, conceding only 2.82 runs an over. Similarily thrifty was left-arm spinner Krunal Pandya, though with India’s abundance of spinning options, his prospects look relatively bleak.
How India would wish their middle order was similarly stacked with quality batsmen. As inadequate as their choices for the World Cup were, the selectors wouldn’t hesitate to insert fresh faces into the side (and maybe an odd forgotten face too). Shubman Gill’s name is on everybody’s lips — some of the experts even reckoned he should have been in the World Cup squad – sort of the gleaming future of Indian cricket.
The 19-year-old did his reputation no harm by crunching 62 and 77 in North Sound. Last month, he had belted an unbeaten 109 (off 96) against Sri Lanka A. It has come to the stage where it’s become difficult to ignore him, unlike the New Zealand series in which he was overlooked after two games. A first-class average of 77, a List A average of 46, a compact technique, a full oeuvre of strokes, composure beyond his age, praise from Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar, Gill’s international breakthrough doesn’t look too distant.
Similarily rated were Shreyas Iyer and Manish Pandey once upon a time, but both weren’t afforded a sustained run to nail their spots. Iyer, in fact, averages 42 in six games and got those runs against Sri Lanka and South Africa. Why he was ditched thereafter remains a mystery, though. Pandey’s career, though, has been an elongated start-stop reel, but he hasn’t done too badly. He scored a brilliant century in Sydney, but failed to convert a clutch of starts thereafter.
One could argue that he didn’t knock on the selectors’ doors as persistently as his Karnataka colleague Mayank Agarwal, but on and off he demonstrated his terrific talent. Like his 87-ball hundred in the series-clincher in North Sound. Though he’s been in the selection periphery for what seems like ages, he is only 29 and a few more hefty knocks could find him back in the blues.
In the soon-to-set-in middle-order churn, Iyer too will nurse comeback hopes. He reeled out a stroke-laden 77 in the first game, failed in the second, and chimed in with a patient 47 in the third.
The lone disappointment among the hopefuls was Hanuma Vihari, who had presented a good account of his doggedness and courage during the Tests in Australia, but hasn’t quite cracked the limited-overs code, managing only 84 runs in three games. But in his last 40 50-over games before this series, he has racked up 1,807 runs at 80.7. So he wouldn’t be entirely out of the equation either.
Though the attack in the Caribbean wasn’t quite the most intimidating they might have faced, with a string of changes likely to be made for the senior West Indies series starting next month, and skipper Virat Kohli exempting himself from the trip, all of these batsmen could trace a comeback trail. And Saini could get his long elusive break.
Brief scores
Ist unofficial ODI: India A 190 in 48.5 overs (Shreyas Iyer 77; Roston Chase 4/19) beat West Indies A 125 in 35.5 overs (Jonathan Carter 41*; Khaleel Ahmed 3/16) by 65 runs
2nd unofficial ODI: India A 255/8 in 50 overs (Ruturaj Gaikwad 85, Shubman Gill 62; Romario Shepherd 4/36) beat West Indies A 190 in 43.5 overs (Navdeep Saini 5/46) by 65 runs
3rd unofficial ODI: India A 295/6 (Manish Pandey 100, Shubman Gill 77) beat West Indies A 147 in 34.2 overs (Krunal Pandya 5/25) by 148 runs
