The Asia Cup 2023 and ODI World Cup 2023 are just around the corner and many former cricketers have already announced their Indian squad for both the tournaments. Ravichandran Ashwin started a discussion regarding giving Tilak Varma a chance in the Asia Cup and World Cup, few other former cricketers also supported the 20 years old cricketer’s candidature in the squad but a former Indian cricketer has a word of caution for the BCCI and selectors.
Saba Karim asked everyone to have patience as we already have seen what happened with Vijay Shankar and Varun Chakravarty. He said, “Absolutely (in reward to creation of Varun-Chakravarthy-like situation). I agree completely. You have to be extremely patient and have the larger picture in mind when picking the final 15/18 for the Asia Cup. But then again, Asia Cup could provide the perfect platform. The selectors would want to pick their best 15 who could then jolly well find themselves in the World Cup squad. So I would reckon pick the top 15 whom they see will play in the World Cup and then pick the two additional players, that will be the rule for Asia Cup. In case Iyer and Rahul are not fit then they will pick a wicketkeeper and middle-order batter and one more each for the two slots to keep the option in hand.”
He also talked about the criteria used by the selectors for selecting players and he strongly feels that performance in domestic cricket is also a parameter for selection, he said, “We often forget that players, whether Suryakumar or Tilak, do put in performances in domestic cricket in the one-day format for a long time. And if a player has performed well in the domestic circuit in the format, but doesn’t have the experience on an international level, although has put in good scores in T20I cricket then they do have the attention of the selectors. So both these factors are taken into consideration. But if they only look at performances in T20 cricket and IPL to pick a player for the ODI team, then that is wrong.”
Selecting Tilak Varma will be a correct decision or not? Let us know your views in this regard.
