BCCI chief selector Ajit Agarkar in his press meet ahead of the Sri Lanka tour reveals the reason behind snubbing Ruturaj Gaikwad and Abhishek Sharma for Sri Lanka tour despite their decent performance.
Though Ajit hasn’t given any direct answers for the duo’s omission, his statement over Rinku Singh’s omission for the T20 World Cup 2024 gave a view regarding BCCI’s thought process.
Despite Ruturaj Gaikwad’s decent performance in the Zimbabwe series he failed to make it into the India squad for the Sri Lanka tour. In the five-match T20I series, Ruturaj featured in the first four games and was benched in the final match of the series.
He scored 7, 77*, 49 in his first three games and didn’t bat in the fourth T20I of the series as India won the match by 10 wickets.
On the other hand, Abhishek Sharma scored his first T20I hundred in the Zimbabwe tour following his impressive performance in the IPL 2024where he scored 484 runs in 16 games at a strike rate of 204.22.
When a reporter questioned regarding Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma and Ruturaj Gaikwad’s omission, Agarkar replied, “Every player who’s left out feels hard done by. Our challenge is to pick only 15. You try and get the best balance possible. So someone’s likely to miss out.
Sometimes, they have had decent performances in recent times but you’ve got to see who is picked ahead of them. Are those guys not deserving of their place? If that’s the case, then there are things to discuss”.
Ajit Agarkar also revealed that they hadn’t completely snubbed any players from the squad instead they had observed some during the Zimbabwe series and glimpsed that they might utilise them if some of their primary players struggled with their form.
“We had an opportunity to give some of those guys a go in the Zimbabwe series, which was good. So, we have enough depth if tomorrow there is loss of form for the players that are playing or there are injuries.
He further justified the move by comparing Rinku Singh’s exclusion from the T20 World Cup 2024 squad regardless of his IPL performance.
But it’s tough. I mean Rinku for no fault of his missed out from the World Cup, it’s an example. He had a terrific [run in the] T20 leading up to the World Cup. But sometimes it’s just the way it goes. Unfortunately for us as well, it is difficult to fit everyone in the fifteen”, Agargar further added.
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