KL Rahul’s stupendous white ball form makes him a firm favourite to get his place back in the red ball team even as selectors fret on all-rounder Hardik Pandya’s fitness before picking ODI and Test squads for the New Zealand tour in Bengaluru on Sunday. Rahul has been India’s most consistent player in T20Is and ODIs but he lost his place in the Test squad after tour of Australia.
The other change in Test squad could be fast-rising Navdeep Saini going as an extra pacer rather than Kuldeep Yadav as the third spinner since only one among Ravichandran Ashwin or Ravindra Jadeja will make the playing XI.
He had failed the mandatory “bowling workload test” after which his personal trainer S Rajnikanth advised him to pull out of India A’s shadow tour.
In case, Hardik can’t make it, selectors might either look at hitting prowess of Suryakumar Yadav since the ODIs in the Kiwiland will be an extension of T20s in World Cup year.
