Irfan Pathan preferred a specialist batsman in place of all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja.
Former India cricketer Irfan Pathan is not seeing all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja into the Team India playing XI for the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final against New Zealand. The match is scheduled to take place at The Ageas Bowl on June 18 and Pathan shared his preferred XI a day before the WTC final.
Pathan would like the Indian cricket team to go with a specialist batsman Hanuma Vihari in place of Jadeja, who is a spin bowler and offers a lot with the bat. He also picked three fast bowlers in the playing XI, but there was no place for Mohammed Siraj.
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"India Playing XI for #WTCFinal: Rohit, Shubman, Pujara, Virat, Rahane, Vihari, Pant, Ashwin, Shami, Ishant, Bumrah," he tweeted.
Pathan wants Ishant Sharma over Siraj in the side because of the former's experience. "I am tempted to go with Siraj but preferring the experience of Ishant," he added in his tweet.
The ex-cricketer further wrote that it's harsh to keep Jadeja out but he prefers a pure batsman. "Difficult to leave out Jaddu but want to prefer pure batsman in Vihari. What say tweeples?", the tweet further read.
Jadeja was recently not part of the four-match Test series at home against England. He is returning to the side after the Australia tour, where the all-rounder suffered an injury and ruled out of the last Test, as well as, the home Test series.