Why was Shikhar Dhawan excluded from the squad for South Africa series? Reason explained!

Shikhar Dhawan's omission from the T20I squad for the series against South Africa was surprising, to say the least. The veteran opener was expected to be in the squad for two reasons. One is his consistent performances in the Indian T20 League in the last few years. Another reason is the absence of first-choice players for the series.

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However, he was excluded from the team and KL Rahul was appointed as captain of the team. This came as a surprise as the Karnataka opener is bound for the postponed Test against England in July this year. All the players who will be part of that game have been rested. Rahul is the only player to play in the five-match T20I series against the Proteas.

Meanwhile, a BCCI official has explained why the left-hander has been excluded from the team. He said that the 36-year-old is a great servant of Indian cricket, but the selectors wanted to give a chance to a youngster. The official added that head coach Rahul Dravid took a tough call and the player in question was informed about the team a day before the team was announced.

“Shikhar has been a great servant of Indian cricket for over a decade. But in T20s, you have to give chances to youngsters who have been doing well. Rahul had to make the tough call and we all agreed. Shikhar was informed by Rahul before the team was announced on Sunday,” a senior BCCI official told InsideSport.IN.

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The 149-ODI veteran played his last T20I on the tour of Sri Lanka last year. As a matter of fact, he was leading the second-string side for the ODI and T20I series in the island country.

India’s squad for South Africa series:

KL Rahul (Capt), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant(VC) (wk), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Hardik Pandya, Venkatesh Iyer, Y Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, R Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik