They have been picked as replacements for the injured trio of Shubman Gill, Avesh Khan and Washington Sundar
It could not be confirmed when Shaw and Yadav will link up with the squad in England or if they would be available for the final two matches of the T20I series in Sri Lanka which ends on July 29.
It is understood that both the team management and the selectors wanted Shaw to continue working on his game especially against the swinging delivery, which was one key factor in his not being named originally for the England tour. Shaw was one of the best batters in the first half of the 2021 IPL where he gave flying starts for the Delhi Capitals. Before the IPL, he had a great outing in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, where he made 827 runs in eight innings as he led Mumbai to the title.
Yadav, whose international career took off following the 2020 IPL, has grown from a dark horse to a near certainty to grab a slot in India’s T20 World Cup squad. In March this year, Yadav, who is 30 years old, made his T20I debut in the home series against England and his ODI debut in the Sri Lanka series this month. Since the 2020 IPL, Yadav, who bats in the middle order, has made 1323 runs in 38 innings, striking at 146.51 with an average of 38.91 along with one century and 10 fifties. In the ongoing limited-overs tour of Sri Lanka, he was named Player of the Series in the ODIs and followed it up with a cracking half-century in the first T20I on Sunday.
Did the selectors then solely pick Yadav on his white-ball form? Possibly, but in the 2019-20 Ranji Trophy, playing for Mumbai, Yadav made 508 runs in 10 innings at an average of 56.44 with two hundreds and two fifties. Of the 77 first-class matches he has played, 71 have been in the Ranji format. He played for India A just once, in 2011-12, the only season where he averaged over 50 – 68.54.
Yadav could end up spending the England tour batting in the nets considering the pair of Hanuma Vihari and KL Rahul are ahead of him in the pecking order. It is understood that the team management has been looking at Rahul as a middle-order batter. He even scored a century in the first innings of the practice game walking in at No. 5 in the absence of Virat Kohli, Rahane and Rishabh Pant.
Stats inputs by Sampath Bandarupalli
Nagraj Gollapudi is news editor at ESPNcricinfo