Indian batting legend Sunil Gavaskar claimed that he wasn’t at all surprised by the non-selection of batsman Hanuma Vihari for the two-test series against New Zealand scheduled for later this month. Hebased his argument on the fact that since Vihari didn’t feature in the recently concluded IPL, and therefore had an “out of sight, out of mind” impact on the minds of the selectors.
“I really was not surprised to be honest because he hasn’t played any cricket in the interim. He hasn’t played in the IPL so hasn’t had any cricket under his belt in the last three or four months.
On the other hand, the others who have been selected have had some cricket, not necessarily Test cricket, so maybe that’s the reason why they came into the picture.
Also, a lot of times we have seen over the years that the performances in the IPL have invariably been the ones that nudge the selection committee so that seems to have happened. Hanuma Vihari hasn’t played a single IPL game so out of sight, out of mind.”
said Gavaskar when asked about the Andhra batsman’s exclusion from the test side.
Vihari was the hero in India’s drawn test match against Australia in Sydney, where he played through an injury, surviving more than 60 overs to draw the game, which looked gone for all money. Vihari was selected as a backup batsman for the next few test series that India played, but didn’t feature in the playing XI.
His omission from the squad was met with uproar on social media probably because of the inclusion of Shreyas Iyer, and Jayant Yadav, whose best format is not the test game. Many pundits, including Harsha Bhogle, questioned this decision.
To add further grounds for speculation online, Vihari was surprisingly named in the India A squad for their 4-day games against South Africa from November 23. The Indian second squad will visit Bloemfontein to play three four-day matches against the Proteas.
Gavaskar, who was the first player to cross 10,000 runs in Test match cricket, felt that this was the perfect opportunity for the right-hander to plunder runs heavily in South Africa and make a statement to the team management in order to make a strong case for himself in India’s squad for the next few series, the first of which is against the Proteas in December.
India’s test series against New Zealand begins on November 25, while the tour to South Africa will commence from December 17.
