Indian pacer Mukesh Kumar shared a cryptic post on his Instagram story on Wednesday, June 18, hours after the touring Indian team made an addition to their Test squad for the England series in the form of Harshit Rana. Mukesh, who had taken a six-fer for India A on the Australian tour and took three wickets against the England Lions in the one game he played, triggering a middle-order collapse for the hosts, was ignored for the series and so did Anshul Kamboj, who was the joint-highest wicket-taker in the two matches alongside Chris Woakes and George Hill.
"Karma bides its time. You will always have to watch out. Karma is unforgiving and always gets payback," Mukesh wrote on his Insta story.
Mukesh was overlooked for the Australia series as well and didn't find a place in the squad in England too. Kamboj, similarly, was one of the best bowlers of the recent Ranji Trophy season, taking a 10-fer in an innings for Haryana. After a good season in the IPL for the Chennai Super Kings, Kamboj impressed one and all with his lines and lengths in England in both the A matches but didn't find a spot.
Rana, who made his Test debut in the Border-Gavaskar series, also played just the first match of the series and scalped as many wickets as Karun Nair - one. Rana has been part of the Indian team across formats since the Australian tour; however, Mukesh seemed like he was feeling hard done by despite being amongst the wickets in every opportunity he has gotten in red-ball cricket.
Rana joined the likes of Arshdeep Singh, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur and Jasprit Bumrah as part of the fast-bowling group in the squad; however, he is unlikely to get a nod as part of the starting XI. Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and one of Prasidh Krishna or Arshdeep Singh are likely to start for the visitors at Headingley in the first Test starting June 20, with Shardul Thakur being the fourth pace-bowling option.