On Wednesday evening (June 15), the BCCI selection committee announced a 17-member Team India squad for the forthcoming two-match T20I series versus hosts Ireland. Ahead of India’s rescheduled fifth and final Test versus Ben Stokes-led England, in early July at Edgbaston, the Men in Blue are also scheduled to play Ireland for two T20Is.
Thus, for the short series, BCCI appointed Hardik Pandya as the captain with Bhuvneshwar Kumar serving as his deputy. The likes of regular captain Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, vice-captain KL Rahul (if fit), Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, etc. will be preparing for the one-off red-ball match versus hosts England when Hardik & Co. will play the Irish side in their own backyard, on June 26 and 28.
While the T20I squad comprises some experienced campaigners and has a host of young stars from the IPL, Gujarat Titans’ (GT) all-rounder Rahul Tewatia was overlooked. Hence, the swashbuckling left-hander reacted to the Team India snub via a tweet from his official account:
Expectations hurts ????????
— Rahul Tewatia (@rahultewatia02) June 15, 2022
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For the unversed, Tewatia had a decent IPL 2022, where he amassed 217 runs at a strike rate of 147.61. With India’s T20I line-up comprising several all-rounders such as captain Hardik, Bhuvi (who can bat a bit), Axar Patel, Venky Iyer, Deepak Hooda, Harshal Patel, Tewatia missed the bus. As he didn’t bowl a single over in the 15th season of the IPL, it might have gone against his selection.
The 29-year-old still has reasons to be disappointed as he fared well as a finisher in IPL 15, better than Venky Iyer (with only 182 runs in 12 games, striking below 110), and this also can be termed as a huge opportunity missed with many white-ball regulars not part of the squad.
India’s T20I squad: Hardik Pandya (Captain), Bhuvneshwar Kumar (vice-captain), Ishan Kishan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sanju Samson, Suryakumar Yadav, Venkatesh Iyer, Deepak Hooda, Rahul Tripathi, Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik
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