India tour of West Indies 2019: Navdeep Saini likely to make India debut

Saini, who played for Virat Kohli-led RCB in the IPL, may be called to the team if Bumrah and Shami are rested for the West Indies tour

Fiery pace bowler, Navdeep Saini, who can clock a speed of 150 Kmph is all set to make his way into the India cricket team, as the selectors led by MSK Prasad will pick India squad for West Indies tour on Sunday.

After the World Cup 2019, the selectors are expected to give rest to fast bowlers, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami for white ball cricket. India will play two T20 Internationals (T20Is) in Florida, USA while one T20I and 3 ODIs will be played in the West Indies. Saini, who played for Virat's RCB in the IPL, has taken six wickets for 79 runs in the two games at an average of 13.16 for India A in West Indies so far during the unofficial ODI series.

Why Navdeep Saini is an immediate selection choice, if Bumrah and Shami are rested?

Navdeep Saini impressed everybody with his fast bowling in the Indian Premier League (IPL 2019). He played for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and picked 13 wickets. RCB performed poorly but Navdeep Saini came to limelight with his pace, clocking more than 150 kmph on regular basis. He was one of the net bowlers along with Khaleel Ahmed and Deepak Chahar. Even when, Bhuvneshwar Kumar had an injury scare during the ICC cricket World Cup 2019, Saini was called as back-up. 

How Navdeep Saini came to limelight

Saini, the lanky  pacer with whippy action and quick arm speed, has got much of his pace thanks to tennis ball cricket. He moved to Delhi from Haryana’s Karnal in October 2012. Gambhir spotted the pacer, who used to bowl with the tennis ball only and backed him to get picked for the Delhi’s Ranji Team. In the domestic season of 2017-18, Saini took 34 wickets and helped the team make it to the Ranji Trophy final, where they were beaten by Vidharbha.

Navdeep Saini career record (as of July 21, 2019)

Batting and fielding records
	Matches	Innings	Not Out	Runs	Highest Score	Average	Strike Rate	Hundreds	Fifties	Fours	Sixes	Catches
First-class	43	43	18	223	42 not out	8.92	43.38	0	0	29	2	12
List A	40	17	9	92	25	11.5	49.72	0	0	8	2	9
T20s	34	7	5	12	3 not out	6	52.17	0	0	0	0	8
Bowling record
	Matches	Innings	Balls	Runs conceded	Wickets	BBI	BBM	Average	Economy	Strike Rate	4-wicket haul	5-wicket haul
First-class	43	75	7227	3388	120	6 for32	7 for 79	28.23	2.81	60.2	4	3
List A	40	40	2058	1738	63	5 for 46	5 for 46	27.58	5.06	32.6	2	1
T20s	34	34	765	902	30	3 for 28	3 for 28	30.06	7.07	25.5	0	0
Data source: espncricinfo