Former Indian batsman Suresh Raina believes Shikhar Dhawan should have been given a chance in the T20I series against South Africa.
Hardik Pandya and Dinesh Karthik will return to the team for the five-match series, which begins on June 9. Meanwhile, Umran Malik and Arshdeep Singh have been called up for the first time.
Suresh Raina questions Shikhar Dhawan’s omission from the T20I squad
With the 2022 Indian Premier League (IPL) in full swing, cricket fans’ attention will once again be drawn to international cricket. The Indian cricket team will host South Africa for a five-match T20I series starting on June 9 just days after the IPL 2022 final.
KL Rahul has been named captain, while Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, and Mohammed Shami have all been rested. After performing well in the IPL 2022, pacers Umran Malik and Arshdeep Singh were handed their first India call-ups, while veteran India wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik and star all-rounder Hardik Pandya were given comebacks.
While some of the decisions were inevitable, others were not, such as the omission of Rahul Tripathi and Shikhar Dhawan, both of whom had performed admirably in the current IPL season.
What is wrong with @BCCI
Why is @SDhawan25 @rahultripathi not included?
What wrong dis d they do? Or what else do they need to do to be in the squad?
Come on @BCCI @SGanguly99 we have better expectations from you #BCCI #TeamIndia #IndiavsSouthAfrica #RahulTripathi #ShikharDhawan— Satyam Singh Sengar (@satyam_sengar) May 22, 2022
Suresh Raina believes that despite being in fantastic form in the IPL, Shikhar Dhawan has been unfairly overlooked by the selectors. In IPL 2022, the Delhi batsman scored 460 runs in 14 games, after scoring 587 and 618 runs in the two seasons before that.
“Obviously, Shikhar would have been disappointed. Every captain wants a player like him in the team. He is a fun-loving person who brightens up the environment. And he has always scored runs – be it domestic, international, or T20,” Raina said.
“If you’ve brought Dinesh Karthik back into the team, Shikhar Dhawan deserved a place too. He has performed runs for the last 3-4 years and has scored runs non-stop. Somewhere deep down, he must be sad,” he added.
Since 2016, Dhawan has scored at least 500 runs in every IPL season despite playing for several franchises. Dhawan last represented India in T20I cricket in July 2021, when he led the team to Sri Lanka. He is still in India’s ODI squad, but after some outstanding performances in the IPL, he is not in the T20I squad.
