Middle-order batter Rajat Patidar and medium pacer Mukesh Kumar has been selected for the three-match ODI series against South Africa starting this week.
Shikhar Dhawan will serve as the team’s captain, while Shreyas Iyer will serve as his assistant. It’s interesting that the selectors have once again ignored opener Prithvi Shaw, who has been on fire with the bat.
The batter from Madhya Pradesh, Patidar, has received accolades for his outstanding play in domestic cricket, his breakout season with Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL(Indian Premier League), and most recently, his outstanding performance for India A versus New Zealand A in the four-day matches. Patidar has defeated the visitors by a score of two centuries.
An effective red-ball bowler for Bengal named Mukesh Kumar emerged as the leading wicket-taker in first class matches against New Zealand ‘A’ and then put up another outstanding performance in the current Irani Cup match against 2019–20 Ranji champions Saurashtra.
Ishan Kishan, a wicketkeeper batsman, has emerged from the shadows, while Sanju Samson has also been selected. In addition, pacer Avesh Khan, who missed the Asia Cup owing to a fever-related sickness, was given a position in the 16-person squad after his outstanding performance against New Zealand A.
Shreyas Iyer, Deepak Chahar, and Ravi Bishnoi, three of India’s T20 World Cup favourites, are also included in the squad.
Discovered via a WhatsApp group
Mukesh Kumar had no idea he had been selected for the national team until he joined the official Whatsapp group for the Indian team. It dawned on him at that point that he had been chosen for the one-day series against South Africa, which will begin on October 6 in Lucknow.
“I shed a lot of tears. Everything was hazy. I could only picture the face of my late father, Kashi Nath Singh. My father didn’t think I was good enough to succeed professionally until I competed for Bengal in the Ranji Trophy.” Mukesh spoke to PTI while playing for Rest of India in Rajkot.
It was just before the Ranji finals when he lost his father to a cerebral haemorrhage. After his morning workout, he would visit his father’s hospital bed.
“Today, my mother was crying. She was very distressed. The man from Gopalganj district in Bihar, who had taken the CRPF tests three times after graduating because his father wanted him to work for the government, said that everyone at home had started crying.
Mukesh, a first-class cricketer, is currently employed by CAG, not the CRPF (Comptroller and Auditor General’s office). He has been Bengal’s most reliable new ball bowler, and his five wickets in the first Test match against New Zealand ‘A’ and a four-wicket haul on the opening day of the Irani Cup significantly accelerated his ascent to the Indian team.
A life-altering event
Mukesh Kumar received a notification on his phone that he had been added to the Indian team’s WhatsApp group for the South Africa ODI series while he was returning to the hotel following the second day of play of the Irani Cup. Within minutes, he began receiving congratulations from his admirers, supporters, and well-wishers via social media and messaging services. He called his mother and informed her about him playing for the Indian team in the coming ODI series as soon as he got off the phone.
Following that, he made calls to individuals who had supported him through good and bad times, including his coaches, “Joy sir” (former Bengal batter Joydeep Mukherjee) and “Rano sir” (former Bengal swinger and bowling instructor Ranadeb Bose).
Sunil Joshi, the national selector, and Mukesh and Umran Malik had a lengthy conversation just before they left the Saurashtra Cricket Association venue. Joshi failed to inform him, He refused. According to Mukesh, he contacted me to congratulate me after waiting for the official announcement. Almost every young Indian desires to receive a call-up at some point during his or her early years, and it has been over three hours since he did.
India’s ODI squad: Shikhar Dhawan (Captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shubhman Gill, Shreyas Iyer (vice-captain), Rajat Patidar, Rahul Tripathi, Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper), Sanju Samson (wicket-keeper), Shahbaz Ahmed, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravi Bishnoi, Mukesh Kumar, Avesh Khan, Mohd. Siraj, Deepak Chahar
