The All India Men Senior Selection Committee announced India's T20I, ODI and Test squad for the upcoming South Africa tour on November 30 (Thursday). While the announcement gives recognition to several players who have been consistently performing in the domestic circuit, only three players have been fortunate enough to be included in all three squads.
Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer and Mukesh Kumar are the three players who will be representing India in all three formats. The move narrates the amount of faith the current selection panel has in the potential of the three players.
Ruturaj has done fairly well in the recent past while donning India colours. He led the Indian team to the Asiad gold in Hangzhou recently and struck a magnificent century in the third T20I against Australia in Guwahati on Tuesday, November 28.
The right-handed batter has featured in 17 T20Is thus far and aggregated 458 runs at a strike rate of 144.47. He has played four ODIs and is yet to make his Test debut.
On the other hand, Shreyas has almost cemented his place in both the ODI and the T20I side. He was India's third-leading run-getter at the recently concluded ODI World Cup with 530 runs at an average of 66.25 and a strike rate of 113.24. Shreyas is the most experienced player out of the three selected for all three formats.
Lastly, Mukesh is someone who has impressed the team management, in particular, the bowling coach Paras Mhambrey in a very short span of time. Mhambrey had mentioned during India's recent tour of the West Indies that Mukesh "is capable of playing all three formats".
"Very happy with the way he has progressed; the thought process, the discussion we had with him and his approach towards the game is fabulous. You need someone like him to come here on a tour and play against tough opponents on a different wicket which is never easy. But the way he has gone about it and the character he has shown (makes us) extremely happy.
"Going forward, since we know he is capable of playing all three formats, we need to be smart with his workload management," Mhambrey had told in a press conference leading into the fourth T20I against the West Indies at Lauderhill in Florida.
