Cricket News

‘He’s good bowler, but not part of squad’- Mohammad Kaif unhappy with star Indian bowler’s exclusion from the New Zealand tour

 

India will take part in 25 ODIs ahead of the World Cup, out of which two have already been played against New Zealand in the ongoing series. Indian captain Rohit Sharma is rested for the series which brought a lot of criticism for the team around social media.

Virat Kohli and KL Rahul were also rested for the tour. Kohli made a comeback in the shortest format while KL was still struggling. It will be interesting to see how they play in the 50-over format after a large volume of T20Is.

Former Indian batsman Mohammad Kaif believes that India should stop experimenting with too many players as the preparations have not started well for the 50-over World Cup 2023 with India losing the first ODI to New Zealand in Auckland in the absence of senior players. Kaif thinks that the team management should back the players who they really want to play in the major tournament next year.

“Why is Bhuvneshwar Kumar not in the squad, I have no clue. He’s a good bowler, but not part of the squad. In the search for new players, we are losing out on the old ones. There’s a saying: in search of diamonds, we lost the gold,” Kaif was quoted as saying.

‘The preparation starts from here’: Kaif

The 41-year-old said that the management should decide the players they’re looking for and keep backing them.

“You had good players in the squad so this shouldn’t be the case. If you’re backing someone, please do it nicely. The preparation starts from here, there’s no time for experiments. The months will pass, and suddenly you’ll find yourself approaching the World Cup. So, you decide on the players and keep backing them,” Kaif said.

Furthermore, he backed Umran Malik for success in the future and said that the Jammu & Kashmir fast bowler should be kept in the scheme of things while preparing for the World Cup in 2023.

“Umran Malik, the extra pace that we often talk about, (Jasprit) Bumrah got injured at the T20 World Cup, there was no one with that kind of pace. The three pacers – Arshdeep (Singh), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and (Mohammed) Shami all three of them bowl nearly at the same pace. In the World Cup, we missed someone, who can bowl 145 cases per hour. Someone like Umran Malik, definitely, back him from here on,” Kaif concluded.