Out of favour off-spin bowler Harbhajan Singh is quite vocal about his cricketing, and sometimes political opinions on Twitter. A few days ago, the veteran bowler had slammed the national selectors for dropping young keeper-batsman Sanju Samson from the limited-overs series against the West Indies, to which Samson eventually made it as a replacement for an injured Shikhar Dhawan.
This time around, Harbhajan has lashed out at the selectors for omitting Mumbai captain Suryakumar Yadav from the upcoming Sri Lanka and Australia series. Suryakumar, who has been a vital cog for Mumbai in domestic cricket across formats, has been picked in the India A’ squad for two tour matches and three one-day games in New Zealand. But his omission from the national squad has irked Harbhajan.
“I keep wondering what’s wrong Suryakumar Yadav has done? Apart from scoring runs like others who keep getting picked for Team India, India A, India B, why different rules for different players (sic)?” tweeted Harbhajan on Tuesday.
(Image Courtesy: PTI )
The 29-year-old’s stats across formats prove why his omission would seem unfair to many, especially when Rohit Sharma has rested himself for the Sri Lanka series and a spot was up for grabs. Suryakumar has scored 4,920 runs in 73 First Class games, averaging over 43 which also includes 13 centuries and 24 half-centuries. In the shortest format, the right-hander, who can bat at any given position, has 3,012 runs from 149 games with an average of 31.37.
In this year’s first Ranji Trophy game, he hit an unbeaten 102 to be the anchor in Mumbai’s 309-run victory over Baroda in the latter’s backyard.
Coming to the Indian Premier League (IPL), ‘SKY’ as he is known as by fans, has played for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the past and now for Mumbai Indians. He has played 85 matches so far in which he has scored 1548 runs including seven half-centuries.
India will play three T20Is against Sri Lanka followed by an ODI series against Australia.