Is Arshdeep carrying niggle or eight-batter theory keeping him out of Indian playing XI?

Dubai, Sep 11 (PTI) Pacer Arshdeep Singh got his last T20I game exactly 223 days back: January 31, 2025 to be precise.

The national team played one more game in Mumbai after that before assembling for the Asia Cup opener against UAE in Dubai.

He is India's most prolific wicket-taker in T20Is with 99 wickets from 63 games and is very close to becoming the fastest Indian to get 100 wickets in the shortest format but surprisingly he did not find a place in the playing XI for the game against UAE on Wednesday.

He also warmed the benches during the England Test series (barring fourth Test when he was ruled out due to a finger injury).

His only game time ahead of Asia Cup was North Zone's Duleep Trophy quarter-final against Central Zone where he didn't look menacing.

It is still not very clear what is coming in Arshdeep's way to find place in India's playing XI: Is it a niggle ? or team management's tried and tested formula of shoring up batting till No. 8 and playing that third specialist spinner ? It was expected that Arshdeep would be an automatic choice against UAE in the Asia Cup opener but much to to everyone's dismay and surprise, he made way for third specialist spinner Varun Chakravarthy.

The team management hasn't yet clarified yet if Arshdeep was carrying a niggle but if that was the case, a replacement would have been called by now.

Arshdeep spent maximum time with strength and conditioning coach Adrian Le Roux on the eve of the opening game against UAE during the Indian net session at the ICC Academy.

Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya and Kuldeep Yadav, all three who were supposed to bowl in the opening game, opted rest while Arshdeep, Varun Chakravarthy and Axar Patel were the frontline bowlers present among others in the optional session.

But Arshdeep rather than bowling, decided to hone his batting skills a bit and did a lot of fitness drills under Le Roux and bowling coach Morne Morkel's supervision.

He did short sprints, sprint repeats, strides for close to an hour and at times it felt like as if he was doing some 'Return to Play' fitness drills.

If it was an 'out and out' fitness related issue, then physio Kamlesh Jain would have also monitored the session but that was not the case.

"Arsh is a bundle of energy. He is a compulsive training freak. One need not read much into his routines. He had recently aced Bronco Test (Sprint Repeats) at the NCA," a source told PTI on condition of anonymity.

Combination conundrum =============== This brings us to the question of combination and perhaps Arshdeep could miss out on more games going into the T20 World Cup -- a tournament that will be held in the sub-continent -- India and Sri Lanka.

It is no secret that coach Gautam Gambhir is bullish when it comes to having batting depth till No.8 and using at least three frontline spinners on slowish tracks.

The strategy worked wonderfully during the 50-over Champions Trophy in Dubai where India went with four specialist spinners in Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav and Varun Chakravarthy in the final against New Zealand.

Since most of the Asian batters find it difficult to read Kuldeep and Varun and Axar's batting at No.8 expected to yield results in close games, it effectively shuts the door on Arshdeep unless Gambhir makes an exception in the game against Pakistan.

At least in the 50-over game at this venue -- Harshit Rana, Mohammed Shami were backed by all-rounder Hardik Pandya against Pakistan but then Bumrah didn't play that tournament.

Nor did he play against England in the preceding T20 series, which made it easier for Arshdeep to play.

With Bumrah back as a first-choice speedster and Varun being the best T20 spinner for India through last season, the 'young turbanator' might have to grin and bear it while training hard and keeping himself in shape.

Till India aren't confident that international games across formats could even be won with seven quality batters -- one among two specialists -- spinner Kuldeep or pacer Arshdeep will have to keep missing the games. PTI KHS KHS AT AT