5 unlucky players who failed to make it to the ODI squad of India against South Africa

In a recent piece of update, the Indian cricket Board has announced the squad of India for the upcoming ODI series against South Africa. Senior southpaw Shikhar Dhawan will be leading the team in this 50-over assignment against the Proteas. Whereas, Shreyas Iyer will be there in the role of Dhawan’s Deputy.

Advertisment

Although, apart from these two known names, the India squad will mostly consist of some new entries like Rajat Patidar, Rahul Tripathi, Mukesh Kumar, and Shahbaz Ahmed. There are also some players whose names were expected in the squad but unfortunately, they couldn’t make a cut to the national squad for this bilateral series.

So, here we’ll have a look at those five players who were in the 16-member squad of India for the ODI series.

Prithvi Shaw

Advertisment

Prithvi Shaw had a brilliant start to his international career when he smashed some excellent knocks in for the Indian team. He has also performed well for his team in the Indian T20 League. Apart from that, the 22-year-old batter has also performed well in his recent appearance in the unofficial ODIs against New Zealand A.

Prithvi Shaw ended up scoring 94 runs in two innings of the three matches he played for India A with an average of 42.00 and also a half-century to his name. But still, the Indian selectors couldn’t find his contributions noteworthy to be eligible for the selection in the Indian squad for the ODI series against South Africa.

Advertisment

Venkatesh Iyer

Venkatesh Iyer (Image Credit : Twitter)

The 27-year-old all-rounder has played only two ODIs for the Indian team and he couldn’t perform up to the expectations in these two matches. Although, Venkatesh Iyer has some good numbers with bats in the T20Is that is not enough for an all-rounder to cement his place in the team when there is such a tough competition.

He has also failed both with the bat and ball in the last couple of appearances in domestic cricket. Eventually, the selectors happened to ignore him while they were selecting the team for the three-match ODI series commencing on the sixth of October.

Krunal Pandya

Krunal Pandya (Source: Twitter)

The senior Baroda all-rounder hasn’t played any for the national side of India since his last appearance almost a year ago in 2021. Just two months back in August 2022, he had played for Warwickshire in the Royal London One Day Cup. Although, he couldn’t register any remarkable performance after playing a couple of matches.

Considering his current poor run of form both with the bat and ball, the Indian selectors overlooked Krunal Pandya and picked a young guy to prove himself in the same role.

Mohsin Khan

Mohsin Khan (Source: BCCI/IPL)

Mohsin Khan amazed and impressed everyone with his stellar performances in the 2022 edition of the Indian T20 League while playing for the new entrants Lucknow. He ended up scalping 14 wickets in nine matches of the 15^th season of the tournament.

Apart from the franchise league, Mohsin has also had some excellent numbers in white-ball cricket while playing in the domestic circuit. He has scalped 26 wickets in 17 List-A matches along with 47 wickets in 34 T20s to his name. Despite continuous brilliant performances, the management ignored the talented Moshin Khan and preferred out-of-form Avesh Khan over him.

Chetan Sakariya

Chetan Sakariya (Source:BCCI/IPL)

The 24-year-old young pacer stunned everyone by announcing his arrival in the Indian T20 League by delivering some exceptional performances. The young bowling prodigy Chetan Sakariya has played only an ODI and two T20Is for the national side of India and could scalp three international wickets.

Apart from that, he has some brilliant and outstanding numbers to his name in domestic cricket. Sakariya has scalped 53 FC, 25 List-A, and 54 T20 wickets in a total of 74 domestic matches. But still, he is struggling to make a permanent place on the national side of India and also missed in the squad for the ODI series against South Africa.

Here is the full Indian squad for the ODI series against the Proteas:

Shikhar Dhawan (C), Shreyas Iyer (VC), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shubhman Gill, Rajat Patidar, Rahul Tripathi, Ishan Kishan (WK), Sanju Samson (WK), Shahbaz Ahmed, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravi Bishnoi, Mukesh Kumar, Avesh Khan, Mohd. Siraj, Deepak Chahar.