Axar Patel while plying his trade for Delhi Capitals this year.
Former India batsman Manoj Tiwary rued the omission of Suryakumar Yadav and Axar Patel after the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the squad for India’s tour of Australia.
The selection committee met via a video-conference on Monday before announcing India's squad of all three formats. Two notable omissions from the tour were- India’s limited-overs vice-captain Rohit Sharma and pacer Ishant Sharma- who suffered injuries in the on-going IPL edition.
Meanwhile, two names, Suryakumar Yadav and Axar Patel, despite delivering in the on-going IPL edition, were overlooked for the tour, surprising many fans as well as several notable faces of the cricket fraternity.
“Hard luck @akshar2026 and @surya_14kumar on not making it to the Indian team dis time. Some years down d line, few cosy group of people will say that u both were born/played at the wrong Era but I would say u cud have easily played alongside ur competitors," tweeted Tiwary on Tuesday.
While 30-year-old Suryakumar has gathered 283 runs for Mumbai Indians this year, Axar has scalped eight wickets along with producing vital cameos with the bat.
Veteran India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh also slammed the selectors for ignoring Suryakumar. Despite performing consistently in the IPL and Ranji Trophy, Suryakumar has constantly been ignored from the national set-up, according to Harbhajan.
“Don’t know what else @surya_14kumar needs to do get picked in the team india.. he has been performing every ipl and Ranji season..different people different rules I guess @BCCI I request all the selectors to see his records,” Harbhajan tweeted.
Team India T20I squad: Virat Kohli (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul (vice-captain and wicket-keeper), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Sanju Samson (wicket-keeper), Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Varun Chakravarthy
Team India ODI squad: Virat Kohli (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Shubman Gill, KL Rahul (vice-captain & wicket-keeper), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Mayank Agarwal, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur
Team India Test squad: Virat Kohli (Captain), Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha (wicket-keeper), Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Mohd. Siraj
