We are looking at Khaleel Ahmed as a left-arm option for the World Cup: MSK Prasad

The selection panel led by MSK Prasad have thrown in a few surprises in the recently announced 16-man Asia Cup squad. When all the focus was on Virat Kohli and his workload, they’ve picked a young left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed who bowled superbly in the recently concluded quadrangular series. While they rested Kohli as expected, Rohit Sharma was backed to lead the team. However, the chief selector MSK Prasad looks mighty impressed with the left-arm fast bowler as he is being tipped to play the World Cup next year.

He was exceptional in the recent series while playing for India A. Khaleel picked seven wickets in four matches at an impressive average of 17 and a decent economy of 4.38. He was also in the limelight for his performance in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament and ever since then has been on the radar for the selectors.

We have two-three slots to fill

During the press conference, Prasad went on to say that there are still two-three slots to fill in the ODI squad for the World Cup next year in England and they are looking at Khaleel to occupy one of those. “There are two, three slots we are yet to see before we fix the final team for the World Cup and one of the slots is a seamer slot which is available. We are looking at a left-hander option in Khaleel Ahmed,” he said.

The selection of Ambati Rayudu, Manish Pandey and Kedar Jadhav also points out that the selectors are desperate to solve the middle-order muddle of the team. While Rayudu and Pandey have been awarded for their recent good show, Jadhav has straight away come back into the contention after being fit despite not putting up a strong performance. He offers a decent sixth bowling option and would be interesting to see if he makes it into the playing XI.

Though Kohli’s absence will hurt India as they are set to face the arch-rivals Pakistan at least twice during the tournament and the likes of Rohit and Dhawan will have to play a crucial role at the top of the order.

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