Hanuma Vihari's form in last 10 innings in first-class cricket

Hanuma Vihari has been a notable absentee from Indian Test cricket and despite so many injuries and players not playing, the veteran Andhra Pradesh batter is not to be seen. So, the question is how he is performing in Ranji Trophy?

Vihari, who has had his bout with injuries for too long, has finally had a Ranji Trophy season where he has been playing regularly and has been in more than decent form

In the Ranji Trophy 2024 in nine innings, Vihari has amassed, 424 runs at an average of 47.11

Vihari has scored one century and a couple of fifties in the current season of the Ranji Trophy with the highest of 183 coming against Chhattisgarh

While he has been in decent touch, players like Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraz Khan and now Devdutt Padikkal were in too tremendous and consistent a form to be ignored by the selectors

In the last two games, Vihari's scores read - 12, 11 and 48. Hence, the recency bias too may have come in selectors' consideration going with Padikkal as KL Rahul's replacement and not Vihari

If Vihari's last 10 innings are to be considered, the average reduces to 44.6 as his 10th innings came back in the Irani Cup last year where he scored 22 in the second innings for Rest of India

Vihari's scores in last 10 innings - 22 (37), 51 (133), 6 (22), 46 (101), 4 (11), 63 (102), 183 (347), 12 (32), 11 (44), 48 (73)

The recent selection policy may have shown that the BCCI is looking more towards youngsters but Vihari may have not done much wrong and will need to keep putting in performances to stay on the selectors' radar