Live Cricket News: In addition to several new faces and notable returns to the Indian team for the upcoming five-match T20I series against South Africa, the squad announcement for the home series saw some notable omissions and surprise exclusions. MSK Prasad, the former chairman of selectors, was particularly disappointed by one of the few exclusions, admitting that the India star “clearly missed the bus.”
Shikhar Dhawan was one of the most notable omissions from the 18-man T20I team named on Sunday. Despite his consistent performance in the Indian Premier League (IPL) last season, the veteran opener was left out of India’s T20 World Cup squad, and despite a comeback in the ODI series against South Africa and against West Indies at home, he was not considered for the upcoming match against the Proteas.
Prasad told NDTV that Dhawan may have been an ideal choice for the Indian team at the T20 World Cup in Australia, where he has played admirably and has been a “proven customer in ICC competitions.”
“I thought they will consider Shikhar because if you’re looking at T20 World Cup, we’re going to have it in Australia. It will be all hard and bouncy tracks, where Shikhar is a proven customer. Shikhar is also a proven customer in ICC tournaments. So somewhere I felt that maybe they could have given him an opportunity in this series before completely overlooking him,” he said.
“I personally felt that they should have tried him in this series. If they were not happy with him, they could have gone ahead. Maybe because Ishan Kishan and other guys have played the (2021 T20) World Cup, they are sticking on with them rather than trying out somebody else, I have a feeling like that. But I think Shikhar has definitely missed the bus. But they should have tried him in this series. If they were still not happy with him, they should have gone past him,” he added.
“Obviously, Shikhar would have been disappointed. Every captain wants a player like him in the team. He is a fun-loving person who brightens up the environment. And he has always scored runs – be it domestic, international or T20. If you’ve brought Dinesh Karthik back into the team, Shikhar Dhawan deserved a place too. He has performed runs for the last 3-4 years and has scored runs non-stop. Somewhere deep down, he must be sad,” Raina had said on the Cricket Live show on Star Sports.
