5 players who should have been picked for T20I squad

India's squad for the solitary T20I against doesn't include some stellar names. But the chairman of selectors, MSK Prasad said that the whole reason behind the wholesale changes was to find a core of players that will play for India in the 2019 World Cup.

While that sounds like a great idea and one that might well prove to be incredibly successful, it was surprising to see India not pick some talented T20 stars for the solitary T20I that they will be playing against Sri Lanka.

Preparing for the World Cup is one thing, but have T20 specialists strut their stuff in the format is an idea that still seems lost on India. So there were several players, who were unlucky to miss out on a spot in the T20I side.

Here are five players who should have been picked for the T20I squad:

Suresh Raina

The future of Suresh Raina in the Indian colors is a curious one. He hasn't been played an ODI since 2015 and with the emergence Kedar Jadhav and Hardik Pandya, who seemed to have taken up the finishers' role, it looks unlikely that he will be able to mount a serious comeback into the side.

However, his T20I role is far more complicated. With nearly 7,000 T20 runs to his name, he is India's leading run-scorer in the format. While his numbers for India have been slightly worse than his career T20 numbers, he still has been good enough to warrant a place in the T20 side.

He was included in the T20I squad to face England at the start of the year but has surprisingly been left out of the next two T20 squads. On the back of another good IPL, Raina has proven his fitness and has been working incredibly hard to reclaim a spot in the T20I side.

However, he hasn't got the opportunity to prove himself despite being one of India's best T20 batsmen of all-time. At 30, all is not yet lost for Raina, but he will be hoping that he gets his chance sooner rather than later.