In the T20Is India have played following the 2022 T20 World Cup, Ravi Bishnoi has been quite consistent in securing his place in the team. But time will tell if he is well-placed to clinch a berth for the shortest format’s showpiece event this June.

Bishnoi had been a part of India’s all eight home T20Is after last year’s ODI World Cup. Going by numbers, the 23-year-old seems to have done more than a decent job with his leg-spin bowling. In the 11 T20Is last year, he took 18 wickets, including quite a successful outing against a relatively second-string Australia. He finished with nine scalps from five matches during India’s 4-1 series win last November-December, just after the ODI World Cup.

As this year’s T20 World Cup, beginning in the Caribbean and the United States from June 4, rolls in, the presence of a leg-spinner would surely add to the variations in India’s spin department. Quite a few pitches during the tournament will offer turn and purchase for the slow bowlers and Bishnoi’s record in the Caribbean is quite impressive — he has eight wickets from four T20Is there so far.

Yet, the route isn’t as smooth for him. “Bishnoi is one of the targeted players of the selectors. But so is (senior leg-spinner) Yuzvendra Chahal and (off-spinner all-rounder) Washington Sundar.

“In any case, the well-established Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel are already there. So, maybe one more spinner could be added to the squad. Bishnoi, thus, has to trump both Chahal and Sundar in this IPL and maintain his fitness.

“His problem is he tends to leak runs at times as he struggles to control his pace. We saw that during the Afghanistan T20Is in January (where he finished with an economy rate of over 10). Anyway, the first seven-eight games of this IPL will show where he stands,” a BCCI official told The Telegraph on Wednesday.

Bishnoi has lately been paying a little more attention to his batting too, having scored some runs in a T20 tournament in Udaipur this month. “He registered scores of 93, 55 and a 40-odd in that tournament. The way he is batting, he should be able to contribute at least some 15-20 runs for his team (Lucknow Super Giants),” Pradyot Singh Rathore, one of Bishnoi’s personal coaches, said.

With the ball, Bishnoi’s focus has been on the off-and-middle-stump line while he has also been working on the classical leg-spinner. “He’s fast through the air. So, if
he can consistently pitch it on off and middle, he won’t
be too easy to get away,” Pradyot added.