Picture Credit: Instagram
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Selection Committee on Monday (31 October) picked the squads for India’s upcoming assignments - the New Zealand series and the Bangladesh series. As the Men in Blue will tour New Zealand right after the T20 World Cup, many senior players have been rested. This meant that youngsters would get opportunities in the white-ball squads for the New Zealand tour.
But with so much of talent pool in the country, selectors had to dig hard before finalizing the squads for T20Is and ODIs. Eventually, a 16-member squad was named for the three T20Is with Hardik Pandya selected as the captain of the side. Rishabh Pant will be playing his deputy. A few familiar faces like Sanju Samson, Shreyas Iyer, Washington Sundar, and Umran Malik were also included.
For the three ODIs, the BCCI Selection Committee almost retained the same team except for the captain. While Pandya has been selected to lead the team in T20Is, veteran batter Shikhar Dhawan will lead the team in the three ODIs. The squad for Bangladesh ODIs was also named but with senior players available, not many names were included. But still, there were a couple of new faces like Rajat Patidar, Rahul Tripathi and Yash Dayal.
Nevertheless, despite trying hard, the selectors missed out on a few names who have been performing brilliantly in the domestic circuit. The likes of Prithvi Shaw, Ravi Bishnoi, and Nitish Rana could not get the go-ahead. Veteran pacer Umesh Yadav who was brought back into the scheme of things during the home series against Australia and South Africa also missed out.
These exclusions did not sit too well with the players as they shared strong messages on their respective social media accounts. All four cricketers shared quotes to depict their feelings. While Shaw wrote, “Hope you are watching everything Sai Baba”, Bishnoi posted, “Comeback is always stronger than setback”.
Umesh Yadav chose “Maybe you can fool me but God is watching you mind that”.
Meanwhile, Nitish Rana shared HOPE as an acronym for ‘Hold on pain ends’.
