3 players who were unlucky to miss out on India's squad for the South Africa T20I series ft. Rajat Patidar
The BCCI recently announced India's squad for the upcoming four-match T20I series against South Africa, which will commence in Durban on Friday, November 8. With the side embroiled in other assignments like the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and an A tour of Australia in the same month, plenty of fringe names will get the chance to make an impression.
The board announced that Mayank Yadav, Shivam Dube and Riyan Parag have missed out on the squad due to injuries, which isn't a great sign. While there is clearly plenty of talent in the contingent, there are a few questionable omissions as well.
India’s squad for 4 T20Is against South Africa: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Rinku Singh, Tilak Varma, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ramandeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Avesh Khan, Yash Dayal.
On that note, here are three players who were unlucky to miss out on India's squad for the South Africa T20I series.
#3 Rajat Patidar
Rajat Patidar had a terrific 2024 Indian Premier League season for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Although he started the campaign on a slightly negative note with a few failures in a row, he truly came into his own in the second half as Bengaluru reached the playoffs.
Patidar was immense against the spinners, particularly leg-spinners. He smacked 120 runs in the nine overs of leg-spin that he faced in IPL 2024 and is one of the most well-rounded middle-order batters going around in the country right now.
While Tilak Varma has been picked to tour South Africa, Patidar has strangely been ignored. Interestingly, it was in the Rainbow Nation that he made his international debut. Given his performances in the shortest format recently, it would have been ideal to see him on the plane once again.
#2 Rasikh Salam
India's fast-bowling reserves are relatively thin right now, and they have tried to address that by picking the likes of Avesh Khan and Yash Dayal for the tour of South Africa. One notable name who they missed out on was Rasikh Salam, who has been impressive over the last few months in the shortest format.
While playing for India A in the Emerging Asia Cup, Rasikh was one of the standout death bowlers. He has been able to hit the yorker at will, with his slower ball also proving tough to counter at times. The Jammu & Kashmir fast bowler also turned in similar displays during IPL 2024 for the Delhi Capitals.
India desperately need a quality death bowler who can bowl across phases, and Rasikh is definitely a name to watch out for in the near future.
#1 Prabhsimran Singh
Another name from India's squad in the Emerging Asia Cup, Prabhsimran Singh seems like he is getting closer to taking his game to the next level. He has played a few dazzling cameos in the IPL and looked to be attacking right from the outset in Oman recently.
India are rather short on quality wicket-keeping options in T20I cricket and could have picked Prabhsimran ahead of Jitesh Sharma, who hasn't been in the best of nick lately. The dashing Punjab batter would've also ticked off the reserve opener box, with the Men in Blue having only Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson in the squad.