Five Players Who Were Unceremoniously Dropped From Team India

Team India is going through a transition at the moment. Experienced players including Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, and MS Dhoni are away from the team due to multiple reasons and the team is experimenting a lot. This has made way for a lot of young new talent to get exposure to the senior national side.

However, this has raised the bar of competition to a great extent and if one does not capitalize on his chances early in, he is bound to make way for others.

A perfect specimen of the same is the Rishabh Pant-KL Rahul saga. Pant had been the regular first-choice wicketkeeper-batsman since MS Dhoni’s departure from the team.

But, his days now seem to be faded away as Rahul is now the current favourite for the spot.

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Pant had been given numerous chances with the bat and gloves but the young lad has failed miserably. His luck also doesn’t seem to favour him at the moment. He suffered a concussion in the first game of the India-Australia series which made way for Rahul’s entry.

Since then, Rahul has cemented his place as the first choice and doesn’t seem to be getting away from it, especially after the century in the final ODI against the Kiwis.

Rahul has now booked a permanent seat with team India. But, some seem this as an injustice with Rishabh Pant. A lot of fans and experts all across the globe believe that Pant should be given more chances and should be shown faith upon. The way the management is raising him, it is highly possible that he might have a very shortened international career.

However, Pant is not the first and the only Indian player to have suffered such treatment. There have been players in the senior national side who have suffered from this in previous years too.

Let’s take a look on the list of players that have been unceremoniously dropped from the Team India.

R Ashwin:

Ashwin was India’s leading wicket-taker in the 2017 Champions Trophy. However, he was dropped from the limited-overs team along with Ravindra Jadeja.

The selection committee stated that the duo was rested for the Sri Lanka tour but the rest period hasn’t ended for Ashwin. However, Jadeja made his comeback into the limited-overs team.

Ashwin hasn’t played an ODI or T20I since July 2017. He still hopes of making a comeback in limited-overs cricket but that does not seem to be happening anytime soon.

Karun Nair:

Nair entered the Test team for Afghanistan and England Tests. He was expected to play the fifth Test of the series in the UK. Nair was controversially pipped by Hanuma Vihari. This decision invited a lot of criticism from all across the globe.

Nair was later dropped for the Test series against the West Indies and is yet to make a comeback. He isn’t a part of India A squad for the upcoming unofficial Test matches against New Zealand A.

Ambati Rayudu:

One can argue that he lacked consistency in his final run but the selectors and captain’s decision to keep Rayudu out of the World Cup 2019 squad was baffling.

However, Rayudu dug his own grave with the 3D tweet which meant that the team management would never consider him for selection again. Otherwise, he could have made a comeback in place of an injured player.

After being ignored by the board time and again, Rayudu announced his retirement from all forms of cricket.

However, he made a comeback but is hardly expected to be seen in the national colours again.

Yuvraj Singh:

Yuvraj himself revealed that he was kept out of playing XI in the West Indies to prepare for the Sri Lanka series but was ‘rested’ for the tour.

The rest period never ended and he was also offered a farewell game after he failed the yo-yo test. He announced retirement from Indian cricket in June 2019 and went on to play Global T20 Canada and the T10 league.

Ajinkya Rahane:

Backed by Virat Kohli to be Team India’s number four for Word Cup 2019, Rahane found himself out of the ODI squad for the England tour.

On occasions, Rahane has said that he wants to make a comeback in the limited-overs team but the selection committee has moved on from him. He doesn’t hold a chance to play ODI cricket for now.

Shreyas Iyer’s recent performances have now left no room for his entry in the ODI squad.

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