Aakash Chopra believes Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah are the only all-format players for India

Team India is currently playing the first of the two-match Test series against the Windies in Antigua. The visitors once again managed to surprise many with their team selection. India decided to leave out Ravi Ashwin and Rohit Sharma from the playing XI preferring Ravindra Jadeja and Hanuma Vihari ahead of them. Not playing Ashwin who has an excellent all-round record against the Caribbeans has raised many eyebrows.

Also, with Rohit Sharma not playing, it is clear that he is still not an automatic selection when it comes to red-ball cricket. India’s limited-overs vice-captain had endured a decent Australia tour in the 2018-19 season and many expected him to make it to the XI. Looking at the irregularities in team selection, the former India cricketer Aakash Chopra feels India don’t have many all-format players now.

He pointed out that only Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah select themselves on any day in all the three formats while the others are not being given enough chances.

Chopra’s tweet

Aakash Chopra took to his official Twitter handle to express himself and also went on to add that Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja and Hardik Pandya have the ability to play all the formats but even they might not be the regulars. India have a lot of format specialist players now, especially in the whites. The likes of Ajinkya Rahane, Ravi Ashwin and Ishant Sharma don’t seem to be in the plans when it comes to ODIs and T20Is.

Also, some of the players are only preferred for the shorter formats when a few Indian cricket experts feel that the team should look for the batsmen across all the formats. During the early 2000s, almost the same team used to play both the Tests and ODIs which is not the case now. At the moment, only Kohli and Bumrah seemed to be walking into the XI across all the three formats which is what Chopra has highlighted in his tweet.

“Fair to say that now India has only two all-format players in Kohli and Bumrah? Pandya, Jadeja and Pant might come close….but only just. Rest keep going in and out on a regular basis…” his tweet read.

Here’s his tweet:

Fair to say that now India has only two all-format players in Kohli and Bumrah? Pandya, Jadeja and Pant might come close….but only just. Rest keep going in and out on regular basis…

— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) August 23, 2019

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