Rishabh Pant
Rishabh Pant (Credits: Getty)

India,  on Monday, became the third team, after New Zealand and Australia, to name their squad for the upcoming World Cup in England. The biggest talking point from the squad was the surprised omission of Rishabh Pant. The young wicketkeeper-batsman was looking set to catch the flight to England after being named in the squad for the series against Australia.  Moreover, the selectors had dropped Dinesh Karthik from the squad, thus giving a big indication that Pant was ahead in the pecking order.

However, the MSK Prasad-led selection panel sprung a mighty surprise by recalling Karthik and dropping Rishabh Pant. Pant has been one of India’s most impressive performers since making his Test debut in England last year. After finishing the last season of the IPL as the second highest run-scorer, he had hit the ground in Test arena, scoring a sensational century at The Oval against England. On the historic tour of Australia, he was the second highest run-scorer.

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Read More: MSK Prasad Reveals The Reason Behind Rishabh Pant’s Omission

But perhaps the failure to impress in white-ball cricket especially the last two ODIs against Australia last month cost him the World Cup squad.

Squad: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Vijay Shankar, KL Rahul, Dinesh Karthik

ICC World Cup 2019: Twitter Comes Down Hard On Selectors After Rishabh Pant's Omission
Rishabh Pant (Credits: Getty)

Karthik, on the other hand, was groomed as the finisher in the last one year or so but was dropped against Australia. Many felt that it was curtains for Karthik. However, the selectors have prioritised experience over youth and thus named the veteran as MS Dhoni’s backup. In another surprising decision, Vijay Shankar made it to the squad too.

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Meanwhile, Twitter was not at all impressed with Pant’s omission and did not take long to express its displeasure. Here are some of the reactionsL

https://twitter.com/sagarcasm/status/1117726711796289536

https://twitter.com/Pranjultweet/status/1117734977431412736

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