"Are those guys not deserving of their place?"- Ajit Agarkar opens up on Sanju Samson and other absentees from IND vs SL squads
Team India's chief selector Ajit Agarkar gave a blunt response when asked about the omission of Sanju Samson from the ODI squad and Abhishek Sharma and Ruturaj Gaikwad from both the white-ball teams for the tour of Sri Lanka.
Abhishek smashed a sensational hundred in the recent T20I series against Zimbabwe, while Samson has a hundred in just his last ODI outing. Gaikwad gave decent performances when asked to bat in the middle order against Zimbabwe.
However, speaking to the reporters ahead of Team India's departure to Sri Lanka, Ajit Agarkar shed light on the difficulty of selecting 15-man squads. He said (via NDTV):
"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."
Agarkar claimed that the selectors will consider the performances in the T20Is against Zimbabwe and will look at the fringe players if there are injuries or loss of form with the currently selected players.
Ajit Agarkar gave the example of Rinku Singh's exclusion from T20 World Cup
Ajit Agarkar also highlighted how Rinku Singh missed out on the T20 World Cup squad despite terrific performances in the build-up to the tournament. He claimed it was important to look at the balance of the side while making selection calls.
On this, he stated:
"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."
India's T20I Squad against Sri Lanka: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Ꮪhubman Gill (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rinku Singh, Riyan Parag, Rishabh Pant (WK), Sanju Samson (WK), Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Khaleel Ahmed, Mohd. Siraj.
India's ODI Squad against Sri Lanka: Rohit Sharma (C), Ꮪhubman Gill (VC), Virat Kohli, KL Rahul (WK), Rishabh Pant (WK), Shreyas Iyer, Shivam Dube, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Washington Sundar, Arshdeep Singh, Riyan Parag, Axar Patel, Khaleel Ahmed, Harshit Rana.