Ind vs Afg T20 | Opportunity for aspirants to stake a claim for T20 World Cup spots

The 3-match T20 series against Afghanistan is India’s last series in the shortest format before the T20 World Cup in June, and it offers hope for some aspirants, opportunities for the regulars and the desperate.

India’s last series in the shortest format before the T20 World Cup in June offers hope for some aspirants, opportunities for the regulars and the desperate.

The three-match series against Afghanistan starting at PCA Stadium here on Thursday will also witness how an inexperienced Indian pace trio deals with the free-stroking Afghans.

With Virat Kohli missing the opening match citing personal reasons, skipper Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill and Kuldeep Yadav are the only regulars in the squad.

The notable absentees are K. L. Rahul, the injured duo of Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav, a left out Shreyas Iyer, pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammad Siraj.

Most of these absentees should return for the World Cup. Assuming that Rinku Singh has done enough to merit a place in the World Cup squad, it will be interesting to see how aspirants like Yashaswi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Sanju Samson, fellow-wicketkeeper Jitesh Sharma, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar and Ravi Bishnoi could make the cut.

Of the lot, Samson will be under tremendous pressure to justify his presence in the team. Since his debut in July 2015, in 21 batting opportunities in 24 outings, Samson has scored just 374 runs with an average of 19.68 against oppositions like Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Australia, Ireland and West Indies.

Despite 15 innings - out of 21 - ending with sub-20 scores, Samson should consider himself lucky to be chosen ahead of an unavailable Ishan Kishan. With the selectors keen on seeing more of Samson, Jitesh Sharma can hope to get a look in a dead rubber.