Face of Nation : Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly became the latest to weigh in on the Indian selectors’ picks for the West Indies tour, and tweeted Wednesday that they needed to pick the same players in all formats of the game. He also expressed surprise over the exclusion of Shubman Gill and Ajinkya Rahane from the Indian squad. Ganguly tweeted that there were too few cricketers who were playing in all formats of the game.
“Time has come for indian selectors to pick same players in all formats of the game for rhythm and confidence.. too few are playing in all formats ..great teams had consistent players ..it’s not about making all happy but picking the best for the country and be consistent..” he tweeted.
There have been questions raised over Gill not being included despite strong performances with India A against the West Indies A squad. He scored three half-centuries in four games, and a total of 218 runs on the tour. He was also awarded the Man of the Series award. Gill had expressed disappointment over not being called up to the India squad in their tour of West Indies that starts on August 3.
“I was waiting for the Indian senior team to be announced on Sunday and I expected to be selected for at least one of the squads. It was disappointing not to get picked but I am not going to spend time thinking over it. I’ll keep scoring runs and performing to the best of my ability to impress the selectors,” he said in an interview.
The Punjab-born right-handed batsman, who won the Under-19 World Cup for India in 2018, had made his ODI debut for India earlier this year against New Zealand. The Indian selectors had justified not picking Gill.
“KL Rahul was suspended during New Zealand series so that’s why Shubman Gill was given chance in that series. Since KL Rahul is back in the Indian squad, Shubman Gill has to wait. He will be considered in the future,” said MSK Prasad, the Chief Selector.
Prasad had also justified 31-year-old Rahane’s exclusion from the World Cup saying, “He was there in the scheme of things, but we have to reward performances of India A, that’s why we haven’t included him.”
