Musaif Ajaz smashed a towering 297-run knock against mighty Delhi in the U-23 Col CK Nayudu Trophy just a few days ago, ringing bells in the ears of selectors who ignored him from the Ranji Trophy squad.
The right-handed batter has performed exceedingly well at the age-group level but has got limited chances in the senior team. He has all the shots in the book and knows how to score those big knocks. J&K’s senior team desperately needs a batter like him in the middle order.
On the other side, Shubham Pundir has been around for a long, long time despite consistent below-par performances. The left-handed batter averages miserly (25) in the 26 First-class matches he has played so far. His numbers are dismal in limited-overs cricket as well (average of 28 and 24 in 40 List-A and 42 T20s).
However, bizarrely, he keeps getting non-stop chances across the formats. Even in the ongoing Ranji Trophy, his scores so far have been 37, 20* and 20 in the three innings. Before these three innings, he had just one fifty-plus score in ten matches last year too.