After a lot of furor over the exclusion of Ambati Rayudu and Rishabh Pant from the team India’s provisional squad for the ICC World Cup-2019, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) now has confirmed the star cricketer duo are in the stand bye group along with some other players.
As the selectors in Mumbai on April 16 had announced India’s squad for the World Cup in England, questions were raised on the exclusion of Pant and Rayudu from the team.
The list of standbys also include pacer Navdeep Saini, who has impressed with his line and length while playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2019.
“Just like ICC Champions Trophy, we have three standbys. Rishabh Pant and Ambati Rayudu are the first and second standbys while Saini is the bowler in the list. So if anyone gets injured, as per requirement, one of the three will be going,” a report quoted a senior BCCI official.
Earlier BCCI had also kept pacers Deepak Chahar, Avesh Khan and Khaleel Ahmed as the net bowlers for the Indian team in England. Any of these bowlers can also be drafted into the Indian team, if the selectors think so, chances of which are unlikely.
“Khaleel, Avesh and Deepak are not designated stand bys. In case of bowlers, that possibility is there but when it comes purely to batsmen, it will be either Rishabh or Rayudu,” the official added.