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When the Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee announced India’s Test squad for the upcoming Sri Lanka series, Washington Sundar kind of missed out because of a hamstring injury, not a small one. So, in a situation like this India needed another off- spinning all-rounder who could add balance to the XI in Sri Lanka’s spin-friendly conditions , you know the type. Eventually the selectors handed Saransh Jain his maiden Test call-up. The more seasoned Madhya Pradesh all-rounder has been churning out runs and also picking up wickets in domestic cricket, pretty much for the better part of the last decade.

 

But still, there was another tough name in the frame. Mumbai’s Tanush Kotian , widely seen as one of India’s best emerging off-spinning all-rounders across the last two seasons, again ended up missing the cut, even though he delivered really impressive performances in domestic cricket since 2024.

 

Why Tanush could have been in the Sri Lanka vs India Tour?

 

So, did the selectors lean more towards experience rather than recent form? Or did Saransh Jain genuinely earn the place over Tanush Kotian? Let’s take a closer, more careful look. Since the first-class debut back in the 2018-19 Ranji Trophy season, the right-arm off-spinner has slowly built up into a dependable all-rounder, that can sway contests with both bat and ball. His breakthrough kind of came during Mumbai’s successful 2023-24 Ranji Trophy campaign, and Kotian really showed up both with the bat ,and the ball. He ended up taking 29 wickets and also scoring 502 runs ,so in a way he was right in the middle of Mumbai’s title-winning season.

 

He then carried that kind of momentum into the 2024 Irani Cup, where he managed to notch up a hundred and a half century, plus he grabbed three wickets. That helped Mumbai lift the trophy after that long, 27-year wait.  This big season basically put Kotian on the map as one of India’s brighter domestic prospects. Not long after, he received his maiden India Test call-up in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, following Ravichandran Ashwin’s retirement, and since then he’s been staying close to the national setup.

 

Still, if you look at what he did over the last two years, a lot of people thought Kotian would finally get his long-awaited Test debut in Sri Lanka, especially after Washington Sundar’s injury. But the selectors went with Saransh Jain instead ,which naturally brought more spotlight on his selection. On first glance, Saransh’s 92 wickets looks like a clear upgrade compared to Kotian’s 56. Yet there’s a detail that matters. Saransh bowled in 10 more innings during the same stretch ,so bowling strike rate feels like the more level comparison.

 

Kotian has been getting a wicket every 50.1 deliveries, while Saransh has needed 57.3 balls per wicket, so in practice Kotian is dismissing batters about 13 percent faster across the same stretch of play.  And on top of that, Kotian also seems to keep a slightly better bowling average, which is basically him giving fewer runs per wicket even while he’s bowling on pitches that are more friendly to batters in domestic cricket.  

 

Altogether, this points to Kotian as the more efficient wicket taker, but selectors don’t usually just pick someone on efficiency alone, it’s not like that, even if the numbers look good.  Another thing working strongly for Saransh was his Ranji Trophy 2025-26 run. Kotian, in comparison only managed nine wickets from five bowling innings, whereas Saransh looked almost dominant, with 30 wickets in 13 innings. His strike rate sat at 46, and his economy was an impressively low 2.64.  

 

In that season he also had a six-wicket haul, plus multiple spells that felt match-defining and nearly single-handedly nudged Madhya Pradesh deeper into the tournament. So yes, Tanush Kotian has shown a slightly better bowling efficiency since October 2024, but Saransh’s bigger workload, his steady output, and that standout Ranji Trophy campaign are probably the reasons the selectors saw him as the safer choice for Sri Lanka, especially with their spin-friendly, challenging conditions.

 

The Mumbai all rounder has once more shown , he’s way more than just a lower order batter. Even when he batted below a handful of established names in Mumbai’s lineup, Kotian has kept bringing in useful moments , whenever the side needed that kind of steadiness. Maybe the most noticeable part of Kotian’s batting is that consistency thing. Even with six fewer innings, he’s still racked up 41 more runs than Saransh, and he’s also managed a slightly higher run rate per dismissal, topping Saransh by more than seven runs on average.

 

So, that batting average of 42.25 looks pretty sharp, it’s almost 22 percent better than Saransh’s 34.75, and it really underlines what he’s offered in Mumbai’s lower middle order. Still, the recently wrapped up Ranji Trophy season sorta drew a different map. While Kotian didn’t quite reach the heights he had set across the prior two seasons, Saransh put in what many would call the best first class campaign of his career.

 

In the end Kotian finished with only 86 runs from four innings, at an average of 28.67, and he also grabbed nine wickets across five bowling innings. Saransh, meanwhile , kind of enjoyed a remarkable season. Playing for Madhya Pradesh he scored 518 runs in 12 innings at a very good average of 51.80, with one century and five half centuries, so yeah not just a cameo. He also picked up 30 wickets, which made him one of those rare types who can dominate both with the bat and ball over the whole tournament, not just one side. For selectors getting ready for that quick Test assignment in Sri Lanka, these latest showings obviously carry weight. And in that sense Saransh, pretty clearly , put forward the stronger argument.

 

Now if you zoom out to their broader first-class records, it adds this extra twist to the conversation. Kotian has been the more reliable batter across his career, but Saransh seems to have a small edge with the ball, plus he brings noticeably more domestic experience to the table. The stats make that contrast hard to ignore. Kotian has averaged above 42 in first-class cricket and has more half-centuries, even while playing fewer matches, which is kind of telling.

 

Saransh, though, has put together a more established bowling career. His 188 first-class wickets, including 10 five wicket hauls, underline how consistently he has done the job as Madhya Pradesh’s main spinner during the past decade. At 33, Saransh has been patiently waiting around for his chance despite repeatedly putting up performances that felt worthy of national selection. Kotian, meanwhile , is only 27 and seems pretty well placed to land his India debut in the near future. Saransh has basically built his case over years of steadiness, not through those big headlines or anything like that.

 

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His outings for India A against Sri Lanka A also made things a lot clearer. The left-handed batter racked up a solid 70, and then came back to take match figures of six wickets in the second unofficial Test , which suggests he can do well in conditions that are pretty much like the ones India will face in Sri Lanka. That show, plus his exceptional Ranji Trophy season, may have ended up being the final push for the selectors.

 

Did Indian selectors make the smarter choice?

 

So, if you look strictly at what has happened since October 2024, there’s a solid argument that Tanush Kotian has turned out to be India’s most well-rounded off-spinning all-rounder. His batting looks better, and his bowling strike rate and average are also just slightly ahead of Saransh Jain, overall. On statistical efficiency alone, Kotian sure does have a convincing case, though. International selection rarely boils down to just one set of numbers. Selectors also look at workload, years in the system, steadfastness across multiple seasons and, maybe the most critical bit, current form.

 

Saransh manages to hit all those points, almost cleanly. His outstanding Ranji Trophy run, solid India A showings in Sri Lankan conditions and that decade-long reliability for Madhya Pradesh made him the more secure and frankly the more deserving pick for this series. Right now, Saransh Jain has finally earned the Test opportunity he waited years for. Yet if Tanush Kotian keeps performing the way he has in the last two seasons , then his maiden India cap might not be so far off.