India A captain picked on merit, says Vengsarkar

“He is the winning skipper of the Saurashtra team which won the Ranji one-dayers just months back. And he has also scored two centuries. He deserves to be the skipper,” Vengsarkar told the The Indian Express. Jaydev scored 293 runs in seven matches at an average of 41.85 in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, but in Ranji Trophy matches he aggregated 262 from 13 innings at just 21.83.

Saurashtra made it to the semi-final of the Ranji Trophy for the second time ever last season, mainly due to the contribution of Jaydev’s team mates Cheteshwar Pujara, who was the Super League’s highest scorer with 807 runs at 73.36, and Sitanshu Kotak, who aggregated 579.

Two all-rounders from the Saurashtra team — Rakesh Dhruv and Ravindra Jadeja — managed better averages than Jaydev. Jadeja had 195 runs in eight innings at 24.37 and Rakesh Dhruv 307 runs in 12 innings at 27.19.

Other batsmen in the squad who will play under Jaydev on the Israel tour — Delhi’s Rajat Bhatia (525 runs), wicketkeeper Yogesh Takawale (419), Hyderabad’s D Ravi Teja (653) and Tamil Nadu’s M Vijay (582) — all had extremely successful Ranji seasons with the bat.

“If Niranjan would’ve tried to push for his selection, then I would have been the first person to drop Jaydev. He is a good cricketer and it will be sad to not pick a player because his father is an honourary in the board,” Vengsarkar said.

The selection dilemma also entails the exclusion of two under-19 players — Uttar Pradesh’s Tanmay Srivastava and Bengal under-19 player Shreevats Goswami.

Srivastava scored a century in the Ranji final against Delhi this season and was also the highest run-getter in the under-19 World Cup, while Goswami was adjudged the best junior player in the IPL.

Though Srivastava has been rewarded with the Border-Gavaskar scholarship to Australia for five weeks, Goswami will be sitting at home during the India A tour.

“We have two good wicket-keepers — Takawale and Wriddhiman Saha — and they both are in form. Goswami is under-19 and still has to make his Ranji debut. Srivastava was left out because the team had openers like Ajinkya Rahane and Shikhar Dhawan. These players have just started, and there’s a long way to go,” Vengsarkar said.