Which India players missed the cut for New Zealand and Bangladesh tours?
The BCCI on Monday (October 31) announced the India squads for T20I and ODI series against New Zealand and ODI and Test series in Bangladesh. Shikhar Dhawan has been given the responsibility to lead the side in the ODIs while Hardik Pandya will lead the team in T20Is.
Some deserving players like Shubhman Gill, Sanju Samson, Rahul Tripathi, Shahbaz Ahmed and Kuldeep Yadav have found a place in the squads. But there are also many talented players who didn't get selected.
Here are five of them:
1. Prithvi Shaw: Shaw being left out from the ODI and T20I series comes as a bit of surprise because he had a good domestic season. In September, the right-handed batter smashed 113 for 121 for West Zone against East Zone in the Duleep Trophy opener in Chennai. Later that month, Shaw also scored 77 runs for India A against New Zealand A. He continued his good form in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy as his 134-run knock helped Mumbai beat Assam.
He was also once asked by the BCCI selectors to drop some weight and fine tune his fitness. He reduced some weight but still didn't find a place in the Indian team. After he was not included in the team, the cricketer shared a cryptic post on Instagram saying: "Hope you are watching Sai Baba." Shaw has played 6 ODIs, 1 T20I and 5 Test matches for India.
2. Venkatesh Iyer: The 27-year-old allrounder is being ignored for quite some time after he had a dull IPL season. Iyer, who had a very good run with Kolkata Knight Riders in 2021, failed to impress in 2022. In domestic cricket though, Iyer has been doing fine playing for Madhya Pradesh. His scores in the last four T20 matches in domestic cricket were 28, 42, 57 and 62.
Still, the Chetan Sharma-led selection committee has decided not to include him in the squad as he hasn't performed much at the international. Nevertheless, Iyer is a good batsmen and can also be a good replacement for Hardik Pandya in future.
3. Nitish Rana: The left-handed batter was another surprise omission from India's squad for ODI and T20I series against New Zealand and Bangladesh. Rana, who plays for IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders, had a good season as he scored 361 runs in 14 matches at an average of 27.77. In domestic cricket also, he has been doing a decent job while playing for Dellhi. His average in the last five domestic T20 matches is 38.6.
Rana, like Shaw, also took to Instagram to share his thoughts on his exclusion from the team. He shared an image on his Instagram account saying: "HOPE"." Rana has played only 2 T20Is for India against Sri Lanka in July 2021 and he failed to perform in both the matches.
4. Umesh Yadav: The right-arm medium pacer, who returned for the Australia T20I series early this month, has also been left out after the selection committee decided to not include him in any of the squads against Bangladesh and New Zealand. Yadav was included as a replacement for Mohammad Shami in the 3-match T20I series against Australia. He played in the first T20I and took two wickets. After that, he didn't play in the next two games.
Yadav is also not part of the T20 World Cup squad and it seems difficult for him to get a place knowing that there are several options for the selectors in the fast bowling department.
5. Ajinkya Rahane: Rahane is known to be a solid Test match batsman but he was also not included in the Test squad against Bangladesh. As per the selection committee, Rahane needs to do more to make it to the Indian team.
While speaking to the media, Chetan Sharma said: "Ajinkya Rahane is trying hard, and also scored some runs, but to return to the team he has to score more runs. And he knows that, he's in constant touch with the selection committee. The Ranji Trophy is coming up and Vijay Hazare is also there. Let's hope he performs well, the doors are always open for those who perform," India Today reported.
Rahane is an experienced player who has played 82 Test matches for India and has scored 4931 runs at an average of 38.52. He has scored 12 centuries and 25 half-centuries in the format.