Suresh Raina Comes Out In Support Of Shikhar Dhawan: After the conclusion of the ongoing 2022 edition of the Indian Premier League, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is all set to host South African cricket team for a five-match T20I series, which will kickstart on June 9.
On Sunday, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) named the much-awaited list of the squad for the upcoming series. While senior players including Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami have been rested for the series, it is KL Rahul who will be leading the Indian cricket team in Rohit’s absence.
The major highlights from the selection became the return of Dinesh Karthik and Hardik Pandya’s return to the T20I setup of team India. Umran Malik and Arshdeep Singh have earned their maiden call-up for team India.
Despite many key players missing, India’s talented opener Shikhar Dhawan has failed to find a spot in the squad. Dhawan was not part of last year’s T20 World Cup team and hasn’t played for team India in the shortest format of the game since the tour of Sri Lanka last year, where he led team India.
Meanwhile, former Indian cricketer Suresh Raina has expressed his disappointment over with Dhawan’s exclusion and has questioned the reason behind it. Raina said that Dhawan has been consistently scoring runs and went on to claim that every captain wants a batter like Dhawan in their squad. He said:
“Obviously, Shikhar would have been disappointed. Every captain wants a player like him in the team. He is fun loving person who brightens up the environment. And he has always scored runs – be it domestic, international or T20.”
He added: “If you’ve brought Dinesh Karthik back in the team, Shikhar Dhawan deserved a place too. He has performed runs the last 3-4 years and has scored runs non-stop. Somewhere deep down, he must be sad,”
Talking about Shikhar Dhawan, he has scored 460 runs in 14 matches at an impressive average of 38.33 for the Punjab Kings (PBKS) in the ongoing IPL 2022.
India’s T20I Squad:
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
