‘Have you forgotten Shardul, Natarajan, Sundar’ – Sunil Joshi on India’s inexperienced squad for BGT 2024-25

Sunil Joshi (Photo Source: Twitter)

India are all set to tour Australia for the much-anticipated Border-Gavaskar series 2024-25. The five-match series will commence from November 22 in Perth. Recently, the BCCI  announced India’s squad for series and much to everyone’s surprise, there were quite a few notable ommissions in comparison to India’s last tour Down Under, with the likes of Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara and Shardul Thakur excluded.

Meanwhile, senior pacer Mohammed Shami is not available as he continues to recover from an injury. In these stalwarts’ absence, the Indian team will bank on the services of youngsters such as Abhimanyu Easwaran, Harshit Rana and Nitish Reddy.

Talking about the same, former India cricketer Sunil Joshi has raised questions on the board for ignoring experience over youth. “Let’s not forget the 2018 and 2021 series. We all know that after the first Test match, Virat (Kohli) came back, and after that things were different. Every Test match, there was a hero from the Indian team. Let’s not forget that Indian players have always risen to the occasion in every Test match,” Joshi told Star Sports.

“Have you ever forgotten Shardul Thakur, T Natarajan, and Washington Sundar? In fact, if you remember, Rishabh Pant, Hanuma Vihari, and (Cheteshwar) Pujara as well. So we need character,” he added.

They have the skill level to do it: Joshi

Joshi acknowledged how big a miss would Shami be for the visitors against Australia. However, he expressed faith in the new faces to perform in the veteran’s absence.

“Yes, of course, we miss (Mohammed) Shami, the biggest X-factor in bowling. Yes, of course, there are three new faces in the side, which is slightly inexperienced, but they have the skill level to do it. It’s going to be a test for them as well because who knew Natarajan, Shardul Thakur and Washington Sundar were going to be the heroes in the previous tour,” he added.