The Vijay Hazare Trophy 2019 is running into its closing stages and it is the right time to start predictions about the players making the cut in the Indian team after showing their mettle in the List A tournament. There have been some brilliant performers in the batting as well as bowling department from different teams.
As most of the pitches in India at this time of the year are suitable for batting, the batsmen have made their opportunities count and scored runs consistently. In this list of players who could make it to the Indian team for the first time or once again, we have 4 batsmen and 2 bowlers.
Starting with the batsmen, Manish Pandey has been in the fray for a long time and he is very close to earning a long run in the T20I format. He has kept his form in the Vijay Hazare Trophy scoring 505 runs in 8 matches at an average of 101. In 8 innings, he has gone past the 50-run mark 6 times, including a hundred. He has scored all these runs at a strike rate of over 100. He will be sure of getting into the national squad once again.
One surprise package is Mumbai’s 17-year-old left-handed batsman Yashasvi Jaiswal. He showed a glimpse of his classic technique in the Mumbai T20 League a couple of seasons ago and one knew he was the one to look out for. He is now converting his skill into performance. He scored 2 hundred in 4 games before registering a double hundred against Jharkhand. In the process, he became the youngest cricketer in the world and seventh Indian to score a double hundred in List A cricket. He has scored the most number of runs for Mumbai so far, 504 in 5 matches at an average over 100 and strike rate exactly 100. His age is a big factor why he may be escalated into the Indian T20I squad if not ODI squad.
Kerala’s Sanju Samson also registered a double hundred in the same tournament a few days ago and has the highest score in the Vijay Hazare Trophy (212). He has now scored 410 runs in 8 innings at an average of 58.57. His strike rate in the season has touched 125. He has once again knocked the selectors’ doors for a place in the T20I side. Samson’s and Jaiswal’s knocks have earned them a place on every page of cricket news in India.
Milind Kumar is a 28-year-old batting all-rounder from Sikkim who scores tons of runs in the Ranji Trophy last year. He bagged a deal with the Royal Challengers Bangalore in IPL 2019. He is once again scoring well in the Vijay Hazare Trophy averaging over 55 in 9 games. He has scored 390 runs including a hundred and 2 fifties. He might get an opportunity because of the off-breaks he bowls and hence can prove two be a two-dimensional player.
The two bowlers who could make the cut are Gaurav Yadav from Madhya Pradesh and Punjab’s Sandeep Sharma. The former is new to domestic cricket but has impressed one and all with 23 wickets in 9 games. His wickets include Manprit Juneja, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Parvez Rasool, Abhinav Mukund, and Mahipal Lomror, who are big names in the Indian domestic circuit. He has picked up a couple of five-wicket hauls and has a bowling average of under 19 runs per wicket. His strike rate is also good, a mere 21.8, which means he picks up a wicket every 3 and a half overs he bowls. Even though he might not be fast-tracked into the national team, the selectors might want to have a good look at him.
Sandeep Sharma is the highest wicket-taker for Punjab this season. He has 16 wickets to his name in 7 games. He averages under 14 runs per wicket and has the best figures of 7/19 this season. His list of wickets includes Jitesh Sharma, Wasim Jaffer, Jayant Yadav, Rishi Dhawan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ankit Bawne and Kedar Jadhav. That is a good list to show.
Have an eye on these cricketers and keep in mind their numbers before making your Dream11 prediction for the Vijay Hazare Trophy matches.
