Former Australian spinner Brad Hogg says that the Indian selectors have made the right decision to drop the ageing players from the Indian squad for the upcoming Test against England.
Former Australian spinner Brad Hogg says that the Indian selectors have made the right decision to drop the ageing players from the Indian squad for the upcoming fifth scheduled Test at Edgbaston, Birmingham from July 1-5 against England.
India is currently leading the five-match Test series by 2-1 and they will have some new faces in the squad including Shreyas Iyer and Prasidh Krishna.
Hogg said that Ishant and Rahane have not been able to produce the best lately and it’s time for the selectors to give chance to the youngsters.
“I think it’s great that the selectors have removed Ajinkya Rahane and Ishant Sharma from the Test team. They have been ageing and haven’t been performing to the best of their abilities of late. You’ve got to move on and bring youth in and rotate them so that they get to experience alongside those who are already experienced,”
Hogg said during a Q&A session on his YouTube channel.
Hogg added that the likes of Shreyas Iyer and Prasidh Krishna will get the opportunity to learn and improve their skills which will be beneficial for Indian cricket.
“Iyer is going to spend a number of years batting alongside Kohli, learning the game for the longer form and being able to develop a game plan where he is going to succeed. And then you’ve got Krishna, who will be coming up alongside Bumrah and Shami. So that is a good policy to rotate the players,”
he added.
“With this Indian team going to England, bowling will be their strength. They will have Bumrah and Shami in the XI, but I would like to see Krishna too with his extra height and Siraj with his pace and a bit of movement. The only reason I have got Jadeja there is his batting depth.”
India leads the five-match series by 2-1 and they need to avoid the defeat to clinch the series.
The fifth and the final Test was scheduled to be played at the Old Trafford in Manchester last year. However, the match was postponed due to a surge in Covid-19 cases which lead to postponing of the fifth Test.