One of the most consistent batters in the T20 format, Shikhar Dhawan was not picked up for the upcoming home series against South Africa.
Dhawan, who yesterday became the first player in IPL to hit 700 fours was neglected by the selection committee when they announced the team India squad yesterday for the next month’s big series.
Interestingly, there were talks in the market that the all-format players will take a break for the South Africa series after a hectic schedule to be ready to face England in England in July, and Dhawan in the absence of senior players will lead the side.
However, everyone were shocked to know when Dhawan was not even picked up in the squad even after having a terrific IPL 2022 season.
He ended his IPL 2022 campaign as the highest run-scorer for the Punjab Kings. In the 14 games he played for PBKS he scored 460 runs at an impressive average of 38.33 and with a healthy strike rate of 122.66.
Not just that, yesterday in his 39 runs knock he smashed 2 fours and became the first-ever batter in the history of IPL to cross 700 fours. On top of that, with again a 400 plus season, he achieved another milestone of hitting 400 plus’ runs for the 7th time in a row (2016-2022*).
In view of the upcoming T20 World Cup, the selectors appointed India’s all-format captain’s deputy KL Rahul as the captain for South Africa series.
Young stars who impressed all with brilliant performances in IPL 2022 such as Umran Malik and Arshdeep Singh received their maiden call-up to play for India. The main idea behind picking the youngsters in the side is to groom them for the T-20 World Cup, which will be played in October this year.
INDIA SQUAD FOR SA SERIES
KL Rahul (C), 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
