Although Team India is licking its wounds after a bitterly fought 3-1 series loss to Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, a video of an old Indian pacer has gone viral and generated calls to include him in the Test squad. In the video, Arshdeep Singh, who is a Kent cricketer, comes to mandatory county play in England and cleans up a batsman with an in-swinging delivery. The video has drawn an immense amount of interest on X, questioning the omission of Arshdeep-who ranks second among India’s highest wicket-takers in T20Is-from the Border-Gavaskar Trophy squad.
It shows him bowling a ripper, seam-ing down and bowling an extraordinarily sharp delivery that cuts back in and knocks-out stumps of a left-hander.
He has a five-match series coming up against England at home in June 2025, and fans now speculated that he might be included in the India squad.” “Why was he not in BGT?” questioned one user.
“Isn’t this guy swinging the heck out of the cherry and he could have come very handy Down Under alongside (Jasprit) Bumrah? Why don’t we play a bowler in Test cricket by judging his performance in ODIs like Arshdeep?” said another.
“Get him in the squad for the England tour,” said a third.
“I was amazed why he wasn’t given a chance in red ball cricket after the heroics of T20WC he showed good promise with his swing bowling on top,” said yet another user.
Beautiful swing from Arshdeep Singh pic.twitter.com/hhFX2WzHlz
— Rothesay County Championship (@CountyChamp) January 7, 2025
Currently, Arshdeep is recognized as one of the best swing bowlers in the country. He has mostly played T20Is for India because of his powerplay swinging and death-overs yorkers. In white-ball cricket, he has taken 95 wickets in 60 T20Is, making him the country’s second-highest wicket-taker in T20Is.
However, his first-class numbers don’t match up to his T20 numbers. He averages more than 30 and has a strike rate of 56.9 in first-class cricket, which explains why he hasn’t been called for selection in the reds despite his incredible ability to swing the ball.
The left-arm seamer is in contention for a spot in India’s squad for the ICC Champions Trophy 2025, no wonder since while he has managed eight ODIs, it is less than adequate for holding an exclusive spot for him in the team.
