On Friday, the Indian selectors announced the 18-member ODI squad for the upcoming series against England. The three-match series is scheduled to be played in Pune from March 23, 2021. 

The entire series will be played at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune, behind closed doors. As the team was announced, there were some surprise calls made by the selectors. Ravindra Jadeja, the star all-rounder, and Mohammed Shami, the lead pacer, have not been named in the side. They are still recovering from their respective injuries. 

This has also led to the selectors choosing some players who have not been in the frame of the ODI set-up in recent times. Suryakumar Yadav, Prasidh Krishna received their maiden call-ups to the ODI line-up.

Here are the top three surprising inclusions in India’s ODI squad for England series:

1) Prasidh Krishna

The tall fast bowler from Karnataka has been playing in the Indian Premier League for the past three seasons. At times, he has seemed effective with the ball for his franchise Kolkata Knight Riders, but nothing about him has given an aura of intimidation as a fast bowler. However, his height allows him to extract bounce from the surface and he has a natural ability to swing the ball.

These attributes were the takeaways from his initial outburst at the IPL. But, there has been some serious work done by him behind the scenes. After a poor IPL season in 2020, where he could only pick up four wickets from six matches, he went back to the drawing board to figure out some things about his bowling. 

In the recent Vijay Hazare Trophy 2020-21, Krishna was only the big positives for his state team. In the seven matches, he picked up 14 wickets with a strike rate of 24.5. Even though, he is unlikely to find a place in the XI, being around the national team will only benefit his growth as a player when returns to the IPL or domestic cricket.

He has also played for India A with some successful returns. This seems to be the reason for him being selected in the side, ahead of the leading wicket-taker of the Vijay Hazare Trophy, Shivam Sharma, who has far better numbers than Krishna.

2) Krunal Pandya

Krunal, brother of Hardik Pandya, last wore the Indian jersey in November 2019. He was only considered for the T20I squad after being a prolific all-rounder in the IPL for Mumbai Indians. However, in the recent Indian domestic season, he transformed his entire game to become a contender for the ODI team. 

Having got the opportunity to lead the Baroda team, Pandya showed his class as an all-rounder. In the five matches of the tournament, the left-handed batter scored 388 runs with an average of 129.33. He scored two centuries and two fifties and failed only once with the bat. Apart from this, he also took five wickets with the ball. 

It can be said that Ravindra Jadeja’s injury has been one of the major factors in Pandya coming back to the Indian team. Even though he might not be as effective with the ball as Jadeja, his batting prowess is something that has helped him to make this team. On top of that, he has been a regular feature for India A in list A cricket, which is another major reason for his inclusion. 

3) Mohammed Siraj

Mohammed Siraj’s inclusion in the ODI squad is probably the most surprising. The right-arm pacer was the most impressive bowler during the two-Test series against England and Australia. But, a deep look at his recent appearances will make you realize that he hasn’t played a single List A match since January 2020. 

He was with the India A team on their tour to New Zealand when he last played a List A match. In that series, he had played just two matches and picked up five wickets. However, a big issue of his while playing white-ball cricket has been his economy. In that series, it was 6.42. His overall List A career would also show an economy of 5.30, which isn’t bad. 

Another reason why his inclusion is slightly surprising is to do with the fact that he hasn’t featured in either of the two domestic tournaments which was recently played. However, there is a case that he was with the Test squad which makes it only obvious for him not to be available for his domestic side.