Ex-India opener urges Gill, Gambhir to provide more clarity on uncapped Indian batter: 'There is no point in...'

The scrutiny over Team India’s selection policy in the ongoing tour of England has intensified following their defeat in the third Test at Lord's, which allowed the Ben Stokes-led hosts to go 2-1 ahead. Since then, there have been calls for captain Shubman Gill and head coach Gautam Gambhir to rethink their combination for the crucial fourth Test that gets underway at Manchester’s Old Trafford next week, with some urging the team think-tank to even consider some of the uncapped members in the squad.

Raman urges Team India to provide clarity on Easwaran

Former India batter WV Raman, for one, feels that the team management needs to be honest with Bengal opener Abhimanyu Easwaran regarding their plans for him in the ongoing tour.

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Easwaran, who was part of the India A team that had played two unofficial Tests against England Lions recently, is yet to make his Test debut despite having received his maiden call-up in 2022 and having been a consistent run-scorer in domestic cricket.

“For someone like Abhimanyu Easwaran, it is fair to give them a string of chances. One odd sporadic Test is not going to work for the individual or the team. People have to take a call on him. There is, of course, no point in carrying a cricketer tour after tour and not giving him opportunities,” Raman told RevSportz.

“Judgmental calls are fine because that’s the nature of the beast in cricket. Coaches and selectors do make judgmental calls. The thing is that there comes a time when it becomes a little bit tricky for everybody concerned because the player himself doesn’t know how he is looked at,” he added.

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Raman, an opening batter himself who had played 11 Tests and 27 ODIs for India, urged the team management to arrive at a decision regarding his role in the England tour.

“The team management is also not sure what to do with one particular player. I am not saying Abhimanyu is not good. It’s better if the decision makers come to a conclusion and decide what exactly he is all about.

“He has been performing in domestic cricket for a long time. He has been part of the A sides. He is even being made the captain of the A side, which means they do rate him. But he doesn’t seem to be getting the nod,” Raman added.

Besides Easwaran, fellow uncapped player Arshdeep Singh and senior left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav have not been part of the action in the ongoing tour either. However, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat Titans batter B Sai Sudharsan had made his Test debut in the tour opener at Headingley, where he was dismissed for a four-ball duck in his first outing before scoring 30 in his second.

Sai Sudharsan was later benched for the second Test at Edgbaston with the visitors bringing in all-rounders Washington Sundar and Nitish Kumar Reddy in his and Shardul Thakur’s place, besides moving Karun Nair from the middle order to No 3.