Three recent selection controversies that affected the Indian team
The selection committee has stirred up another hornet's nest out of nowhere by not picking Shubman Gill for any of the three India squads travelling to the Caribbean Isles, despite Gill being the most-successful batsman in the recently-concluded ODI series between West Indies A and India A, held in the same islands. This has drawn criticism from influential quarters and engendered disappointment in the concerned player.
This is not the first time that the current disposition, led by former wicket-keeper MSK Prasad, has been under fire for some strange choices and some strange exclusions that have even led to the retirement of players.
Let us, in this article, look at three such controversies in the recent past that has led to a wave of indignation among fans and experts alike.
#3 Shankar in, Rayudu out
For months before the World Cup, the one spot that the Indian team management struggled to fill up with a consistent performer was the no.4 position in the middle-order. This was strange for an otherwise complete team that had legendary batsmen occupy the very same position in the past.
In the end, the selectors sprang a surprise by going with all-rounder Vijay Shankar for the position. The ostensible reason was that Shankar could also bowl medium pace besides being a handy batsman and was, therefore, more three-dimensional than the other contender, Ambati Rayudu.
Rayudu first expressed his displeasure in a tweet and then hung up his boots when he was not called up despite Shankar getting injured and then withdrawing from the squad and others such as Rishabh Pant and the uncapped Mayank Agarwal flown in while he was snubbed despite being in the standbys.
Shankar did not really set the world on fire with the bat in the few outings he got in the World Cup. Probably, the selectors were asking a bit too much of a relatively inexperienced cricketer expected to bat at four in the biggest stage of them all. For Rayudu, well, his career ended disappointingly after just 55 ODIs. Interestingly, the charismatic batsman ends with an average of 47 in ODIs, Shankar's average currently hovers around 32 right now.