Mayank Yadav who has been on the sidelines since April 30 after suffering an injury during the IPL 2024 will be returning to the Indian squad for the T20Is against Bangladesh.
| Photo Credit: Emmanual Yogini

India’s fastest bowler Mayank Yadav on Saturday (September 28, 2024) got fast-tracked into the Indian team for the three-match T20I series against Bangladesh after completing his near five-month rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy.

The team set to be led by Suryakumar Yadav only has one more senior — former T20I skipper Hardik Pandya — in its ranks as all the recent IPL performers have been selected.

Mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy, who plays for Kolkata Knight Riders, got a recall after three years since his nightmarish T20 World Cup campaign in the UAE in 2021.

Nitish Reddy, the back-up seamer all-rounder after Pandya and Shivam Dube, also got a look-in after he missed out on the recent Zimbabwe tour owing to an injury.

The talented players like Riyan Parag, Abhishek Sharma, Harshit Rana have all found a place in the 15-man squad that has Jitesh Sharma as the second keeper behind Sanju Samson.

The biggest surprise is certainly the inclusion of Mayank, who consistently bowled mid-150 clicks for Lucknow Super Giants during three of his four IPL matches including back-to-back Player of the Match awards which garnered global attention.

It was during mid-IPL, the 22-year-old Mayank, who hails from Delhi, was ruled out due to lower abdominal strain.

Such has been his talent that he was wrapped in cotton wool with an extensive rehabilitation programme and of late has been bowling 14-15 overs per day at the NCA.

However, it is believed that before being unleashed into red ball format in Ranji Trophy, Bangladesh series is the best opportunity for the national selection committee and head coach Gautam Gambhir to check out how he is coping at the international level with only four overs to bowl.

If his body holds up well, they might slowly draft him into the longer formats as he is considered a prospect who will serve Indian cricket for the longest time.

Chakravarthy, a vital cog in KKR’s victorious IPL campaign under Gambhir’s mentorship, was overlooked as recently as the tour to Zimbabwe and also Sri Lanka despite an impressive 21 wickets from 14 games.

However, it is understood that Gambhir was very keen on having Chakravarthy, who mainly bowls fast leg-breaks along with a deceptive wrong ‘un.

India will play three T20Is in Gwalior (October 6), New Delhi (October 9) and Hyderabad (October 12) against Najmul Hossain Shanto’s Bangladesh.

India squad for the Bangladesh T20Is:

Suryakumar Yadav (C), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Rinku Singh, Hardik Pandya, Riyan Parag, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Varun Chakaravarthy, JItesh Sharma (wk), Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Mayank Yadav.

At his absolute best, Sanju Samson is a sight for the gods. Tall and upright, and blessed with an elegance that only comes to a select few, he makes batting look the easiest proposition in the world. The hallmark of top-class batters, they say, is the ability to pick the length early and play the ball late. Samson is as felicitous as they come, easy on the eye and making the best of bowlers appear commonplace.

So far so good. Samson, however, hasn’t been at his absolute best for sustained periods of time which is why, two months shy of his 30th birthday, his international career is still at a crossroads, as it has been for several years now.

Samson was only 20 when he first played for the country, in a Twenty20 International against Zimbabwe in Harare in July 2015.

In the subsequent nine years, he has only made 30 T20I appearances; his One-Day International career didn’t take off until July 2021, and he has 16 ODI caps. These aren’t perhaps the numbers a batter of his immense skill sets deserve, but Samson is a victim as much of the profusion of riches India can summon as his own fallibilities which haven’t allowed him to average more than 19.30 at a strike-rate of 131.36 in his T20I career.

His ODI record is far more inspiring, suggesting that he deserves a longer run in the longer white-ball format. Fourteen innings have yielded 510 runs at 56.66, and a strike-rate of 99.60 is in keeping with the demands on a middle-over batter in an era where 300 is no longer the exception.

But Samson has made his name as a T20 destroyer, a legacy of his dominant performances for Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League where he has hit numerous peaks and sent some of the greatest performers of the past into raptures with his silken touch and his delectable placement, which is why it is hard to reconcile to his modest performances for the country.

Samson’s supporters – and there are millions of them – will point to the fact that he has seldom got the bouquet of chances that those that are less gifted than him, they will argue, have been bestowed with. That argument won’t be without justification; but the corollary to that is that in the chances that have come his way, he may not have done enough to convince the decision-makers that he deserves a longer rope.

Samson has topped 30 just four times in 26 T20I innings, and he has batted below No. 5 just twice. He himself will be the first to admit that those aren’t exactly flattering numbers, nor is the fact that he has gone past 15 just twice in his last seven innings or that his last two knocks have failed to produce a single run, in Sri Lanka in July.

Weight of expectations

What ails Samson on the highest stage of all, then? It can’t be talent or skill, because when he has made runs, he has done so with the same consummate ease as in the IPL, which sometimes can pose a more potent threat than international cricket. Maybe he is guilty of choosing the wrong shots at the wrong time – read early in his innings – or that the rub of the green hasn’t always gone his way in that his first mistake has often been his last. Maybe he is feeling the burden of expectations and has allowed that weight to burgeon with each passing low score. Because no one can state with any authority that he doesn’t’ belong in international cricket.

How else could he have made his mark in 50-over cricket? It took him a minute to break into the ODI set-up and he hasn’t been a regular there too, his chances often coming when many of the first-choice players have been rested, but there he has grabbed his chances unfailingly with a consistency that is markedly in contrast to his T20I record.

His last ODI knock was a beautifully flowing 108 against South Africa in Paarl in December, and he was unlucky not to figure in the three-match series in Sri Lanka last month, but that has plenty to do with the return to action of Rishabh Pant, back in business after his horrendous road accident in December 2022.

Samson’s 50-over time will come, and not too long from now, one suspects. India don’t have any more ODIs for the rest of the year, but early in 2025, they will play England at home in preparation for the Champions Trophy, being revived after nearly eight years.

It is possible that after that tournament, batting slots will open up and Samson will be one of the frontrunners to make his comeback, especially with the bigger picture and the 2027 World Cup in mind.

Until then, however, he has T20I series at home against Bangladesh and in South Africa in November to convince his doubters, as much as himself, that he still has plenty to offer on the international stage.

India are entering a tense, brave, exciting new phase in that version under a new captain and with a new head coach firmly in place.

For now, Suryakumar Yadav has been identified as the man best suited to lead India’s title defence in the next T20 World Cup, in India and Sri Lanka in 2026, and he and Gautam Gambhir will begin the process of identifying the key cogs in the wheel in right earnest, now that Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja have all bid adieu to the hustle and bustle of the 20-over format.

The next few months will, therefore, be crucial to how Samson’s immediate future shapes up. Assuming the think-tank keeps the faith and continues to invest in him, it will be up to him to make multiple statements of intent through meaningful contributions that will comprehensively erase the tag of T20 underachiever for the country. That will require, more than anything else, just a slight reset of the thinking process rather than a major technical or game-related physical overhaul.

A little more judiciousness in shot selection won’t be out of place, nor will be the infusion of loads of positive messaging and confidence boost from the brains’ trust. Samson isn’t yet in the senior statesman category, but he is a seasoned cricketer at the representative level and a leader in his own right, not just the captain of his IPL franchise. He has a good cricketing brain and can be relied upon to weigh in with pithy inputs in the decision-making process, but all that will be secondary to the runs that he will expect off his own willow.

Realistic prospects

That he isn’t in the red-ball scheme of things for now was evident from his non-inclusion in any of the four squads picked by Ajit Agarkar’s national selection panel for the ongoing Duleep Trophy. Samson snuck in as a late replacement for the injured Ishan Kishan in the India-D side that played India-C in Anantapur, though it was K.S. Bharat who kept wickets in the four-wicket loss. There is a rich array of wicketkeeper-batter riches that India can pick from – apart from Pant, Kishan and Bharat, the others in the fray are Dhruv Jurel, who had three excellent Tests against England at home earlier this year, as well as Abhishek Porel. The Test door might not yet be shut on Samson, but it will take him a Herculean effort to prise it open. The more alluring and realistic prospects lie in the two white-ball variants, especially with so many big-ticket events coming on the back of each other – the Champions Trophy next year, the T20 World Cup in 2026 and the 50-over World Cup in 2027.

It will be a travesty if Samson’s international career remains one less fulfilled. The hallmark of a quality batter is in how easy he makes that particular vocation appear. Samson is aesthetically gifted and works as hard as anyone else; he is a keen listener and an avid student, and he will benefit from being reunited with Rahul Dravid, who has taken charge as head coach of Rajasthan Royals once again. Dravid and Samson share not just a terrific working relationship but also a great empathetic bond, and if the captain can make the most of having the head coach back in his corner, it won’t just be Samson who comes out a winner.

Samson won’t be unaware that he will attract a lot of scrutiny and attention, both from his vast legion of adoring fans as well as the critics who won’t waste time in pointing out the disparity between his IPL and international numbers. It’s all fine to say that he shouldn’t waste time on issues that are beyond his control but as a human being, it is inevitable that he will spend at least a little bit of his energy on this issue. More of his energy will be concentrated on how he can be the best version of himself with the cricket bat more often than not. After all, that is what will take him onwards and upwards, which is the perennial endeavour of every competitive sportsperson worth their salt.

India will find it tough to choose between Yashasvi Jaiswal’s seemingly effortless flamboyance and Abhishek Sharma’s uber-cool aggression at the top when they rejig their combination to make space for World Cup-winning squad members in the third T20 International against Zimbabwe in Harare on July 10.

The arrival of Jaiswal, Sanju Samson and Shivam Dube, all of whom were part of the main team during the title-winning run last month, gives the Indian team a formidable look in the most important game of the series as visitors look to press home the advantage after the booster shot of a series-levelling 100-run victory in the second match.

Abhishek, the left-handed opener, did enough to live up to his pre-series hype with a 46-ball century in only his second game and did look the part opening the innings.

However, Jaiswal, with a handsome strike rate of 161 plus in 17 T20I matches, including a hundred and four half-centuries, does have the first claim to be skipper Shubman Gill’s opening partner by virtue of being the reserve opener of the first-choice T20 team.

Although rare but it is not uncommon for batters to be dropped in the very next match after a milestone innings.

Case in point were Manoj Tiwary, immediately after his maiden ODI hundred against the West Indies in 2011, and Karun Nair after his triple hundred in a Test match against England in 2016.

But skipper Gill is unlikely to let that happen with his best friend since their U-14 days and someone who scored his first international ton with a willow borrowed from the former.

So, it could well be a case of one of the two southpaws batting at one drop. Sanju Samson, who normally bats at No. 3 for Rajasthan Royals, might come in at No.5, while Ruturaj Gaikwad, who batted at No.3, will probably drop down a place to No.4.

As far as the changes in the playing eleven are concerned, Jaiswal is likely to replace B Sai Sudharsan, who was selected only for the first two games.

Samson will come in place of Dhruv Jurel, who had a good outing behind the stumps.

Dube, the only player who was a part of T20 World Cup playing XI, is likely to walk in to replace Riyan Parag. The imposing batter could be an even bigger nemesis for the Zimbabwean spinners during the back-10.

As far as Zimbabwe is concerned, their batting has left a lot to be desired with scores of 115 while batting first and 134 in the second essay chasing 235.

On the Harare Sports Club track where there is a bit of extra bounce available for the spinners, Ravi Bishnoi (6/24 from 8 overs) and Washington Sundar (3/39 in 8 overs) have proved to be unplayable at times.

Bishnoi, who normally bowls 20 to 22 googlies in his 24 balls per match, has varied his pace brilliantly and with home skipper Sikandar Raza being kept quiet, the other batters haven’t looked good enough to counter the Indian bowling attack.

The 13-run shock defeat in the opener was a timely wake-up call for the young visiting side and it did well to play without five specialist bowlers in the second game where batting first became an advantage.

For skipper Gill, a good score would be a necessity after two dry games and he is just too good a player to fail thrice. That could prove to be an ominous sign for the home team bowlers, who don’t have even one guy with express pace.

In a nutshell, it could be another one-sided game.

Teams (from):

India: Shubman Gill (captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhishek Sharma, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Rinku Singh, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Khaleel Ahmed, Tushar Deshpande.

Zimbabwe: Sikandar Raza (captain), Faraz Akram, Brian Bennett, Johnathan Campbell, Tendai Chatara, Luke Jongwe, Innocent Kaia, Clive Madande, Wessly Madhevere, Tadiwanashe Marumani, Wellington Masakadza, Brandon Mavuta, Blessing Muzarabani, Dion Myers, Antum Naqvi, Richard Ngarava, Milton Shumba.

Match Starts at 4:30 pm IST.