5 players who were unlucky not to be selected for the South Africa tour
Indian Test Team
The All India Senior Selection Committee headed by former cricketer Chetan Sharma has recently announced an 18-member squad for the upcoming Test series against South Africa. The side consisted of various surprising inclusions and omissions where some of them missed out due to injuries.
Moreover, Rohit Sharma has been promoted as the vice-captain of the red-ball team with the removal of Ajinkya Rahane as Virat Kohli’s deputy. Here’s the full Test squad:
Virat Kohli (C), Rohit Sharma (VC), KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (WK), Wriddhiman Saha (WK), R Ashwin, Jayant Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohd. Shami, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Md. Siraj.
Standby Players: Navdeep Saini, Saurabh Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Arzan Nagwaswalla
Let’s look at the top 5 Indian players who might consider themselves not to be selected for the South Africa tour:
Ravindra Jadeja
India’s number one all-rounder across formats, Ravindra Jadeja has been ruled out from all three Test matches owing to a “right forearm” injury. This took place during the first five-day home encounter against New Zealand in Kanpur due to which he warmed the bench in the following match as well.
Shubman Gill
India’s promising batter Shubman Gill also won’t be seen in the whites against the Proteas. The youngster’s shin injury has once again shown up and has been sidelined from selection for at least eight weeks. Notably, he could even be out of contention for the white-ball series versus West Indies, scheduled in February 2022.
Axar Patel
All-rounder Axar Patel has produced plenty of stellar performances in Test cricket since his debut against England in February earlier this year. However, just like Jadeja and Gill, the Gujarat cricketer will consider himself unlucky to be left out from the team bus after picking an injury during the Tests against the Kiwis.
Suryakumar Yadav
Mumbai’s middle-order batter Suryakumar Yadav was roped into the squad as back-up during the away series against England as well as against the Blackcaps. However, he didn’t get any opportunity as Shreyas Iyer was picked ahead of him which leaves no spot for him in the squad for SA Tests.
Prasidh Krishna
The final name to appear in this list is of young pace bowler Prasidh Krishna, who was a member of the Indian team in the two-Test matches against NZ. However, he didn’t get any game time and now has been omitted from the South Africa tour just like Yadav.
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Sachin Arora
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