ICC World T20 2016: 5 best cricketers who were not picked in their national squads
All the squads for the ICC World T20 2016 have been announced and there are plenty of players who would have been thrilled to be picked for their country for the first time. While there were also plenty of others who were deprived of a comeback into the side.With the tournament in India, many teams have picked their squad expecting the conditions and pitches to be loaded in favour of the spinners and while that may or may not prove to be the case, one thing is for certain, some players missed out because of that.Others missed out simply because they were deemed surplus to requirements. Here are the 5 best cricketers who have not been picked for ICC World T20 2016:
#5 Irfan Pathan
Despite being 31 and not having played for India in over 3 years, in his recent form, Irfan Pathan, one of India’s star performers in the inaugural World T20, deserved a spot in the Indian squad for the tournament.
While it is true that India now have a settled line-up in the T20Is, ever since their tour to Australia, the fact that they don't have a back-up in the seaming all-rounder slot is an issue that wouldn’t have risen had Irfan been picked. Hardik Pandya might be a younger version of Pathan but given the 31-year-old’s experience, he would have proved to be an invaluable asset, even if it was just on the sidelines.
Irfan’s performances in the Vijay Hazare Trophy and the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament prompted many to talk about his potential comeback for the World T20, unfortunately, they were disappointed as India chose to go with an extra spinning all-rounder who is uncapped instead of a seaming all-rounder with a ton of experience under his belt.