India's Test and ODI squads for their West Indies tour was announced by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Friday (June 24). While the selectors did give some youngsters a chance, some of the consistent performers in the domestic cricket circuit were overlooked. The same has attracted a lot of flak from former cricketers and pundits and the latest to join the voice of those not pleased with the team selection is former India cricketer Wasim Jaffer.
The former India player has taken to social media to share his views. He questioned why players like Abhimanyu Easwaran, Priyank Panchal and Sarfaraz Khan were ignored but somebody like Ruturaj Gaikwad made it into the red-ball scheme of things. He was even surpised that even after players have already been given a bit of a break between the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final and the West Indies tour, someone like a Mohammed Shami was handed a rest.
"What’s the need for four openers? (Rohit, Shubman Gill, Gaikwad and Jaiswal) Instead, they could have picked Sarfaraz as extra middle order bat to honour his consistent domestic performances," Jaffer wrote.
"Easwaran and Panchal have been doing the 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?" he added.
"Surprised to see Shami rested and 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," he further wrote.
India's Test squad For West Indies Tour: 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.