Team India has added Tamil Nadu duo Shahrukh Khan and Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore as the stand-by players for the upcoming limited-overs series against West Indies. The hosts have already announced the 18-member squad for the three ODIs and as many T20Is. Shahrukh was in contention to make his maiden India call-up, however, the selectors chose Deepak Hooda over him in the ODIs. According to a report in Times of India, BCCI has now included Shahrukh and Sai Kishore as the stand-byes.
The source said that the BCCI decided to include the duo in the wake of the third wave of COVID-19 in the country.
“The BCCI wants to have all its bases covered. With the third wave still persisting, the Board cannot take a chance and Shahrukh and Sai Kishore have been added to the squad. Sai Kishore will be a good handy bowler at the nets too,” TOI quoted a source.
The latest development will force the Tamil Nadu team to look for the duo’s replacement for the upcoming Ranji Trophy matches. Tamil Nadu will also miss the services of Washington Sunday who is part of India’s ODI squad for the West Indies series.
“Once the West Indies series would have ended, Washington would have been available. So the management was okay to play the first couple of matches with 19 players. Now the team composition might change with both Shahrukh and Sai missing. A final decision will be taken in the next two days,” the source said.
Ranji Trophy, consisting of 38-first-class teams, was scheduled to start on January 13 but was indefinitely postponed in light of the rising coronavirus cases in India caused by a new variant named omicron.
The tournament will now be conducted into two phases. While the league stage will be conducted first, the knockouts (quarterfinals, semifinals and the final) will he held later in June.
The report suggested that BCCI is likely to keep the venues intact as Chennai is expected to host the Plate matches.
“When the initial phase was planned, Chennai was supposed to host Plate matches. BCCI are likely to keep the schedule intact. The knockout phase starts in June and it is the start of the monsoon in the country. However, Chennai doesn’t get much rain during that phase. So BCCI is likely to schedule the knockout phase in Chennai,” the source said.
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