Vihari gets the India axe for no reason at all

The Hyderabad middle-order batsman has been ignored for home Test series against New Zealand

Hyderabad: Strange are the ways of the National cricket selectors. They have offered no explanation for excluding G Hanuma Vihari from the Indian team for the coming two-Test series at home against New Zealand. It was largely expected that he would play his first home Test after playing 12 Tests overseas as Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were both unavailable for the opening Test. Instead, the selectors delivered a shock.

Or, has the Chetan Sharma-led selection committee bungled? In a move that looks like a damage control exercise, the selectors have reportedly added the 28-year-old Hyderabad middle-order batsman to the India A team that will tour South Africa for three four-day matches, beginning in Bloemfontein from November 23.

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Having led India A in the last couple of years, it will be strange again that Vihari will be playing under Priyank Panchal for this tour. If the selectors were intent on overlooking him for the New Zealand series, they could have named him in the India A squad three days ago. But the after-thought suggests the selectors have tacitly admitted their error.

It is tragic for someone like Vihari to have to face such a fate. He last played against Australia in the Sydney Test earlier this year where he saved the Test and series for India with an epoch partnership with Ravichandran Ashwin on the fifth and last day despite batting with a torn left hamstring.

India went on to win the Adelaide Test and retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Subsequently he was ruled out of the home Test series against England because of the injury. He returned for the tour of Old Blighty but never got to play in any of the Tests in England, thus making his exclusion hard to accept.

He made his Test debut against England at the Oval in 2018. He toured Australia the same year and played in three Tests, one as an opener. In India’s next tour, Vihari was the man of the series against West Indies as he had scores of 32 and 93 in first Test and 111 and 53 not out in the second Test.

India would have never won the series had Vihari not shown heroics with the willow. He would have been an automatic inclusion in the playing XI in the immediate home series against South Africa but with India think-tank of having five bowlers, Vihari was ignored. Perhaps, with that rich form, Vihari could have settled nicely into the team. Since then, this solid middle order batsman has been in and out of the team.

John Manoj, vice-president of Hyderabad Cricket Association, said this could shatter any cricketer’s confidence. “This bungle by the new selection committee is not fair and can’t play with a player’s career. He has never been given a chance to play in India and this was an ideal platform to play him as Rohit (Sharma) and Virat (Kohli) are not available. He deserves a home series. But the selectors played foul on him,’’ he said.

With the Indian team due to tour South Africa next month, the Tests could have been an ideal preparation for Vihari. He will now have to respond to this injustice with his batting as that is the only way to answer the selectors.

Vihari has switched from Andhra to play for Hyderabad this season. He played in the T20 Mushtaq Ali tournament in Sultanpur in Haryana.

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