Former India top-order batter Wasim Jaffer has criticised the Indian selectors after the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the Indian squad for their upcoming West Indies tour. The series saw the inclusion of a few young exciting players like Yashasv i Jaiswal and Ruturaj Gaikwad, which excited fans. 


But these squads did exclude some prominent high-performing Ranji Trophy players, which has raised many questions. Trying to analyse Team India’s selection, Wasim Jaffer took to social media and posted his thoughts on what has been lacking in this process. The first point raised by Jaffer addressed the requirement of picking four opening batters in the squad over Mumbai batter Sarfaraz Khan, who has piled up mountains of runs over the last three Ranji Trophy seasons,  batting in the middle order.


In Jaffer’s second observation, the former Mumbai and Vidharbha batter spoke about West Bengal’s Abhimanyu Easwaran and Priyank Panchal of Gujarat. These players have been among the highest run-scorers in first-class cricket over the last five to seven years and have been around the national team with consistent runs on India A tours. 


Hence, Jaffer questions how Maharashtra batter Ruturaj Gaikwad gets picked over these two players. Concluding his comment on India’s selection, the 45-year-old expressed his confusion on resting fast bowler Mohammed Shami. According to Jaffer, the West Bengal speedster has been someone, who gets fit by bowling consistently and hence questions this call by the selectors.


Wasim Jaffer's tweet said, “My two cents on India's WI tour squads:


“1. What's the need of four openers? Instead, they could have picked Sarfaraz as extra middle-order bat to honour his consistent domestic performances.”


“2. Easwaran and Panchal have also been doing hard yards in Ranji and India A, knocking on Test doors for a long time. Just because they don't play IPL, is it a case of out of sight out of mind? How did Ruturaj jump the queue?”


“3. Surprised to see Shami rested that too after a month-long break. I feel he's the type of bowler that the more he bowls the better/fitter and in form he gets.”


India’s Test squad:

Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), KS Bharat (wicket-keeper), Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Axar Patel, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat, Navdeep Saini.