Four of India’s 15 need fitness clearance, and the same squad goes to the Asian Games

The selectors picked one squad on Tuesday and handed it two assignments. The 15 names released for the three T20Is against Afghanistan in Delhi are the same 15 who fly to Japan for the Asian Games the week after, which makes this the closest thing India have had to a settled short-format group since they won the World Cup in March.

Shreyas Iyer captains it, Tilak Varma is his deputy, and four of the fifteen are in only if the medical staff say so.

The four asterisks

Jasprit Bumrah, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar and Harshit Rana were all named subject to fitness clearance. That is the selection committee putting names on a sheet and leaving the last word to the Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru.

Bumrah is the one that matters. He took a blow to his left knee while fielding in the second ODI against England at Cardiff in July, played out the match, and woke up to swelling bad enough to rule him out of the decider at Lord’s. The knee did not settle. He was named in the squad for the Sri Lanka Tests and then withdrew from it, with Auqib Nabi called up in his place, so he has not bowled a competitive ball for India in six weeks.

The caution reads clearly enough. Afghanistan is three matches in five days against opposition India ought to beat, the Asian Games open two days after the last of them, and a full tour of New Zealand starts on 22 October. Nobody is going to hurry a fast bowler back for the least important of those three.

Samson is back, and so is Chakravarthy

Sanju Samson was one of several senior players left out of the Zimbabwe T20Is, and the board never spelled out whether he had been rested or dropped. It was a strange few weeks for a batter who had been Player of the Tournament at the World Cup, where he made 321 runs at a strike rate of just under 200 and then hit 89 in the final against New Zealand. He returns as one of two keepers, with Ishan Kishan the other.

Varun Chakravarthy comes back from a grade-two hamstring tear he picked up during the third T20I against England, an injury that cost him the Zimbabwe trip and brought Ravi Bishnoi in as his replacement. Both are in the squad now. Add Axar Patel and Washington Sundar and Iyer has four spin options for a Delhi September, which is more than he will be able to fit in.

The 15-year-old is not a novelty pick any more

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has held his place, and by now he has earned it on returns rather than on age. He made his debut in the second T20I against England, then top-scored for India across the Zimbabwe series with 151 runs, including a fifty off 18 balls that made him the youngest player to reach the mark in a men’s T20I. He added a 92 for East Zone in the Duleep Trophy semi-final.

The rest of the batting reads Abhishek Sharma, Iyer, Tilak, Samson, Kishan and Shivam Dube, with Nitish Kumar Reddy as the seam-bowling all-rounder if he is passed fit. Arshdeep Singh leads the attack if Bumrah is not.

Hardik is not in it

Hardik Pandya’s absence was effectively settled a day before the squad came out, when the Times of India reported from the Centre of Excellence that he had been told to stop bowling again. He has not played for India since the World Cup final on 8 March. India have all-rounders in this fifteen and the balance holds without him, but none of them does the specific job Pandya has done for a decade, which is four overs of seam and a licence to swing at the death.

Two tournaments, one group

The Afghanistan matches are on 13, 15 and 17 September at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. The Asian Games open in Aichi-Nagoya on 19 September, with the cricket starting on 24 September and the medal matches on 3 October. Sending the same fifteen to both turns the Delhi series into preparation rather than a separate audition, which is unusual for a home white-ball series and probably the point.

Squad: Shreyas Iyer (c), Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Sanju Samson (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Tilak Varma (vc), Shivam Dube, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Varun Chakravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana.

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