Priyank Panchal and Sandeep Warrier among 10 players as India's future backups.
Chairman of BCCI Selection Committee MSK Prasad on Friday (January 3) said his team has prepared the bench strength of 6 bowlers and 4 batsmen during his tenure of five years and they are ready to take their chance whenever international opportunity arrives for them.
Prasad, whose tenure as India’s chief selector is all set to end along with the selector Gagan Khoda, revealed that the committee have the list of best back-ups for India at the moment.
About the batting back-up, Prasad named Gujarat opener Priyank Panchal and Bengal opener Abhimanyu Easwaran as the worthy back-ups for the current Indian openers while crediting the India A tours for helping the youngsters groom in different conditions.
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Prasad told Hindustan Times, “If you take the case of openers, now with Rohit (Sharma) stepping up, you have Rohit, Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul, Abhimanyu Easwaran and Priyank Panchal. On any given day, any of these guys can open for India. That’s how we have groomed them from a systematic process through India A tours.”
Meanwhile, India have already one of the best fast bowling attack in the world with the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami, Ishant Sharma, and Umesh Yadav and the outgoing chief selector named six another bowlers who are now ready for the international scene.
Prasad signed off by saying, “Talking of fast bowling back-ups, we have Navdeep Saini, Avesh Khan, Basil Thampi, Sandeep Warrier, Ishant Porel and Mohammed Siraj. So, there is a bench for every slot. I am sure this will pave the way and strengthen the Indian team across all formats.”
(With Hindustan Times Inputs)