Ruturaj Gaikwad has been omitted from India’s squad for the upcoming BGT and the T20I series against South Africa. BCCI announced the squad for the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 and the upcoming T20I series against South Africa.
Ruturaj Gaikwad missed out on both squads, despite the updates being that he’ll be the backup or reserve opener for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. He didn’t play the last T20I series against Bangladesh as he was playing domestic cricket.
Gaikwad’s recent performance in T20Is has been excellent. He scored runs in the last series he played against Zimbabwe. He also led the Indian side in the Asian Games to a gold medal.
Interestingly, Ruturaj Gaikwad was announced as the captain of India A which will be on a tour of Australia just ahead of the Border Gavaskar Trophy. His omission from both the test and mainly the T20I squad was quite surprising for the fans.
Fans backlash selectors and team management for excluding Ruturaj Gaikwad
Many fans on social media criticized BCCI and team management after Gaikwad’s exclusion from the both Test and T20I squad. Gaikwad has played 11 T20Is since 2023 and has scored 498 runs at an impressive average of 71.10. He has a great strike rate of 150 including 3 fifties and a century.
Gaikwad was appointed as the captain of the Chennai Super Kings from IPL 2024 after MS Dhoni stepped down from captaincy just ahead of the 2024 season. He has been among the most consistent batters in the league and fans believe that he deserves a place in the national side.
Fans were quite vocal on the social media platform “X”. Many fans showed Gaikwad’s stats for India and first-class cricket and said that it was a big mistake from the selectors, team management and the BCCI.
It’ll be interesting to see if Ruturaj is in BCCI’s the scheme of things and when will he get consistent opportunities to showcase his talent in international cricket. Other playesr who missed selection in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy squad are pacer Mohammed Shami who is not 100% fit. Kuldeep Yadav also missed out as he’s nursing a groin injury. Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana and Prasidh Krishna have been inlcuded in the squad. All-rounder Ramandeep Singh and pace Vijay Kumar Vyshak have been added to the T20I squad to take on South Africa.