Auqib Nabi, Devdutt Padikkal Set To Be Included In India's Test Squad Following Strong Ranji Season

India’s men’s selection committee could look at giving chances to top domestic performers in red-ball cricket in the upcoming one-off Test against Afghanistan later this year. The BCCI will likely to give chances to youngsters, as there are chances that some of the senior players will be rested to manage their workload. Notably, the Test match will not be part of the World Test Championship (WTC) cycle.

If that happens, it could open the door for players like Devdutt Padikkal, Gurnoor Brar, Auqib Nabi and Manav Suthar, who have all impressed in domestic cricket.

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India’s international schedule will resume in June with the one-off Test against Afghanistan, followed by a three-match ODI series. After that, a T20I squad will travel to Ireland for a short two-match series.

A report quoting a source said that the selectors are not known for making rushed decisions, but they are closely watching domestic performances. The source highlighted that players like Gurnoor, Manav, Harsh Dubey, Auqib Nabi and Devdutt Padikkal have all done well and are in contention. However, the final call will depend on discussions between the team management and the medical staff, as workload management is becoming a key factor.

“One thing is clear with this selection panel: they rarely jump the gun. It’s no secret that Gurnoor and Manav have been very impressive, as have Harsh (Dubey), Auqib and Devdutt (Padikkal). It will all boil down to the discussions between the think tank and the medical team because optimum utilisation of resources is going to be key here. No point putting your star players under the sun for a five-day fixture which offers no WTC points,” timesofindia.com quoted a source as saying.

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Players who are part of all three formats are likely to be rested for the Test match but could return for the ODI series that follows.

India are set for a busy period from June onwards, and captain Shubman Gill has already spoken about the challenges of managing workload, especially with very little time between matches and format changes. He has stressed that better scheduling is needed, particularly when moving from white-ball cricket to red-ball formats.

The source also pointed out how tight the schedule is. “And there is little turnaround time between the Test and ODI series. So you will again be in the situation where a Test and ODI regular – say like Gill, Bumrah, KL Rahul and even Ravindra Jadeja – would switch formats from T20 to Test to ODIs in less than a month. The captain and coach have been very vocal about such scheduling in the past and could have the final say,” the source was quoted as saying.