With the 2023 ODI World Cup scheduled to be held in India from October 5 to November 19 this year, a lot of pressure will be on Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid in the playing XI selection department. India last won an ICC trophy in 2013, when MS Dhoni led them to the Champions Trophy title. Since then, India have failed in crucial moments in tournaments, especially in the semi-finals.
Suffering heartbreaking exits, India has been criticised a lot for their team selection in ICC tournaments, and the management has also failed to find an answer to their middle order dilemma in crunch situations. Ahead of the 50-over World Cup, fans and experts have been left divided as to who should bat at no. 4 for India. The position has been taken over for quite some time by MI star Suryakumar Yadav, but in the ongoing Asia Cup, Shreyas Iyer has taken over the role.
Former India cricketer Wasim Jaffer joined the debate and opined that Tilak Varma should be in the World Cup squad, and Suryakumar could be dropped. Both cricketers are in India’s Asia Cup squad, but have been warming the bench. “I will probably take out Prasidh Krishna and it would be a tough choice between Tilak Varma and Suryakumar Yadav. I’ll pick Tilak Varma even though he has not played ODI cricket at all for India. But looking at how he bats and plays his cricket, I think he is more suited to one-day cricket. Suryakumar does have a lot of promise and he has not cracked the code of ODI cricket despite getting a lot of opportunities”, he said, while in conversation with ESPNcricinfo.
Varma hasn’t yet featured in an ODI match, but made his T20I debut on August 3 this year. Since then, he has featured in seven T20Is, registering 174 runs at an average of 34.8 and 138.1 strike rate. He has also bagged a half-century.
Meanwhile, Suryakumar has gained plenty of ODI experience. In 26 ODIs, he has smacked 511 runs, at an average of 24.33 and 101.39 strike rate. His ODI stats are not as impressive as the ones in the T20I format. In 53 T20Is, he has slammed 1841 runs, with a strike rate of 172.7 and 46.02 average. He has also clobbered three centuries and 15 half-centuries in that format.Also Read
