Bumrah, Pandya keep slots in the team; Manish Pandey ignored

Other young players such as Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya, who impressed in the recent series against Australia, also found a place in the squad announced by BCCI Secretary Anurag Thakur after a meeting of the selection committee here on Friday.  

“This is the best combination of 15 we can think of,” selection committee chairman, Sandeep Patil, said in a press conference after the meeting. Interestingly, pacers Ishant Sharma and Bhuvneshwar Kumar were ignored. Also, Manish Pandey, who featured in the ODI series against Australia, was left out of the team to be captained by Mahendra Singh Dhoni. 

The Asia Cup is scheduled to be held in Bangladesh from February 24 to March 6, followed by the World T20 from March 8 to April 3 in India. 

Patil expressed his faith in Dhoni’s leadership despite the recent mixed run. “We have no right to tell people when to retire, we have total faith in Dhoni’s captaincy. He is the right person to lead in Asia Cup and World T20,” Patil said. The 23-year-old Negi, who bowls left-arm spin and is a decent batsman, was rewarded for his consistent performance in the domestic circuit. 

That Negi will be a contender for the World Cup team had become obvious when he was selected for the three-match series against Sri Lanka this month. Ajinkya Rahane also found a place in the squad ahead of Pandey, who hit a match-winning century in the last ODI against Australia. 

Pandey got his break owing to an injury to Rahane and even though he made it count, the selectors opted to go with the more experienced player. “Manish Pandey performed exceptionally well in Australia, his name was also discussed,” Patil said. 

“When selectors pick a team, we always give importance to domestic performance. It is not that we are only looking at seniors, we have looked at the performance, fitness and record of the domestic players as well. We have taken into account all the performances of not just 1516 guys but all the domestic players and then picked these 15,” he added. 

Senior off-spinner Harbhajan Singh has been retained in the side despite not getting a single T20 in the series against Australia.