As the India tour of West Indies 2023 is about to play on July 12, Hanuma Vihari opens on missing WI Test Series says ‘Nobody Contacted’ him.
Hanuma Vihari on missing WI Test series
Being a regular member of the Indian Test side, Hanuma Vihari is not been part of the Test team that will be playing in the West Indies.
Hanuma Vihari, the 29-year-old has been part of 16 Tests. His last match in India came in July 2022 against One-off Test at Birmingham against England. Since then he has been sided out for the Test side and he opens up after being dropped.
“Definitely, there was disappointment,” Vihari said on media. “I didn’t find a reason why I was dropped and it was the only thing that was bothering me. Nobody really contacted me and told me the reasons why I was dropped.
It took some time and I have gone through ups and downs and I’m not worried about it now. I’ve put aside my personal side of things and I don’t take too much stress about whether I’m in the Indian team or not. There are other matches to win and it is about winning the trophies.”
On the other hand, India Skipper Rohit Sharma confirmed that he will be opening with a new partner in the first Test of India’s West Indies tour which is scheduled in Dominica.
India team management will be selecting a new opening in their first test of the ICC World Test Championship cycle 2023-25 and the skipper will open alongside left-handed batsman Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Jaiswal has an average of 80.21 in 15 games, scoring 1845 runs with nine centuries and two half-centuries. Jaiswal also has an average of 53.96 in 32 List A games, becoming the youngest double-centurion in the format when he scored 203 runs off just 154 balls for Mumbai in January 2019, scoring against Jharkhand at the age of 17.
Yashasvi Jaiswal made his debut in 2020, but the season 2023 turned out to be the most important aspect in deciding his career. Only playing 14 matches for Rajasthan Royals, the batter scored 625 runs at a superb strike of 163.61. His average in the season was around 48.08.
He scored a century but should have been considered as two due to his score of 98 off just 47 balls in his side Rajasthan Royals’ nine-wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders. Jaiswal now has the record for the fastest IPL 50s in that match and came within a ball of equalling Yuvraj Singh’s record of the fastest fifty overall in T20 cricket.
To fill the spot of Cheteshwar Pujara, who wasn’t selected for this trip, Rohit’s current partner Shubman Gill will be playing at No.3.
“Gill will play at number 3 because Gill himself wants to play at number 3,” Rohit said in a pre-match press conference ahead of the first Test on Wednesday.
“He discussed with Rahul (Dravid) that I have played all my cricket at 3 and 4. I think I can do better for my team if I bat at number 3. And it is good for us too because it becomes an opening combination of left and right,” said the India skipper.
“So I think we will try to do this and hopefully this will go on for a long time. Because we have been looking for a left-hander for many years. So now that we have got that left-hander, let’s hope he performs well for the team. And he can really make that spot his own,” Rohit added.
India vs West Indies Tour 2023
India will make its much-awaited return to the field after the finals of the World Test Championship 2023. The match will kick off the West Indies Series with Two-Test match series. Despite losing the WTC, the selectors have only added young players giving a maiden Test call-up.
As the players have reached the host’s ground, they are about to start the preparations soon. With its current performance, West Indies would not be much of a challenge for Team India and they are expected to win Test and ODI with ease. But West Indies shall put some competition in the T20I series against India.
