The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced Team India’s squad for the upcoming three-match ODI series against South Africa, starting on October 6.
As the first-choice players will be leaving for Australia for the T20 World Cup later this week, there are many new faces in this team. Veteran batter Shikhar Dhawan will be the captain, while Shreyas Iyer will be the vice-captain for this series.
Although many young players have been given a chance in this series, few of them, who have performed consistently well will be upset about not getting a place in this side. On that note, let’s take a look at three deserving players who missed out on India’s ODI squad for the South Africa series.
#1 Prithvi Shaw
Mumbai’s dashing opener Prithvi Shaw has not been included in the squad for the three-match ODI series against South Africa. Be it List A cricket or IPL, Prithvi has consistently performed well in the last two years.
He has scored a mountain of runs in List A cricket with an average of 56.04 and a strike rate of 125.2. Interestingly, Prithvi was included in India A squad for the ODI series against New Zealand A. Despite decent returns, he was not considered for the series against the Proteas.
#2 Venkatesh Iyer
Venkatesh Iyer was considered the next superstar of the Indian team after IPL 2021. He was touted as Hardik Pandya‘s replacement in the white-ball format of the game. Hardik’s injury also gave Venkatesh a chance in the Indian team after the T20 World Cup 2021.
The all-rounder got significant chances but failed to replicate his IPL form in India colours. Hardik’s return to the Indian team meant that Venkatesh had to lose his place.
A poor performance in IPL 2022 proved fatal for Venkatesh and he has fallen out of the Indian team’s scheme of things. However, he has looked in decent touch of late and deserved another shot in the international arena.
#3 Devdutt Padikkal
Karnataka’s young batsman Devdutt Padikkal seems to have suddenly moved away from the Indian cricket setup. The left-handed batter has shown reliable consistency in List A cricket and his omission from the squad against South Africa is certainly a bit of a surprise.
He has scored 1,391 runs in 22 matches at an excellent average of 77.27 in List A cricket. Padikkal was included in the squad for the Sri Lanka tour in 2021 but has not been given a chance since then.
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