“He did nothing wrong” - Sunil Gavaskar feels bad for dashing batter after missing out on WC squad

Former Indian opening batter and commentator Sunil Gavaskar has heaped praise on Ishan Kishan for breaking into the Indian team for the much-awaited ICC T20 World Cup 2026, scheduled to start on Saturday, February 7, in India and Sri Lanka.

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Speaking exclusively on JioStar, Gavaskar asserted that Kishan was in brilliant form in the recently concluded Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2025-26 season. He further added that the selection committee gave enough priority to the domestic performers instead of the IPL.

"When you see someone performing, you pick him. Ishan Kishan has already been in the side and shown he can do it. That is a big plus. His current form in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy proves that domestic cricket performance must be the selection criterion, not just the IPL. I am very happy for him. He was out of the team for a couple of years but made a fantastic comeback by leading his state team, Jharkhand, to a title-winning season," Sunil Gavaskar said on JioStar.

On the other hand, Gavaskar lauded Jitesh Sharma, who was the first-choice keeper in the recently concluded South Africa T20I series, but failed to make it to the World Cup squad. The former batter stated that Jitesh did nothing wrong to be left out of the squad. 

"I feel for Jitesh Sharma, though. He did nothing wrong. He was a very good wicketkeeper in his time, and after MS Dhoni, he was perhaps the best at helping the captain with DRS calls from behind the stumps. It is tough on him, but he is young. He just needs to go back to domestic cricket and keep performing," he added.

India’s T20 World Cup 2026 Squad: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Rinku Singh.

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