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Mohammed Shami, Axar Patel and Arshdeep Singh's exclusion flagged as ‘unjustifiable’ by former cricketer
India's ODI against New Zealand sparked debate over team selection, particularly the absence of Axar Patel, Mohammed Shami, and Arshdeep Singh.
India’s first ODI of 2026 had barely started when selection became the talking point. With A T20 World Cup around the corner and the 2027 ODI World Cup already on the horizon, every combination now gets read as a message.
Former India A captain Priyan Panchal ensured this one did. “Don’t get me wrong...I like Washi and Harshit as players. Even Prasidh, for that matter,” he posted on X, before adding Axar Patel, Mohammed Shami, and Arshdeep Singh, “miss the cut...It’s unjustifiable after a point.”
The backdrop was India’s XI for the first ODI against New Zealand in Vadodara: Shubman Gill, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, and Prasidh Krishna. Arshdeep, despite being part of the 15-man squad for the series, was the seamer left out. Sami and Axar were not named in the ODI squad for the New Zealand series in the first place.
Panchal’s post is not a takedown of the newer names. It is a challenge to the hierarchy. Axar has been a reliable white-ball option who adds batting depth and left-arm control; Shami’s ODI record gives India a proven strike bowler with the new ball; and Arshdeep has proven himself at the highest stage, time and again. When all three are absent from the XI, the selection can feel less like rotation and more like a reshuffle.
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India’s selectors, however, have been signalling a wider theme. Gill has spoken of using this ODI series to shape roles and assess combinations on the road to the 2027 World Cup. Workload has also been a factor: Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya were not selected for these ODIs, leaving management to explore different seam and spin combinations.
That is where Sunday’s XI becomes an interesting case study. Three spinners plus three seamers is not unusual in India, but the choice of personnel - Sundar’s off-spin over Axar’s left-arm option, Harshit and Prasidh alongside Siraj, and Arshdeep Singh watching from the bench - is what has fuelled the argument.
For the team, the simplest rebuttal is performance. But for the wider ecosystem, Panchal’s question will linger: if this is a pivot, how clearly is India explaining the new pecking order?
With two more matches left in the series, the debate is unlikely to die down. The next XI call - especially around Arshdeep and the balance of spin - will be watched as closely as the result.
