Ishan Kishan and...? 5 deserving players who missed out on India ODI squad vs New Zealand

Mohammed Shami, Ishan Kishan and Ruturaj Gaikwad [Source: @AyushCricket32/X]

India has recently announced their ODI squad for the New Zealand tour, and despite having some popular and familiar names like veterans Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, there were some notable omissions.

Selection calls are always tough, and no matter how balanced the Ajit Agarkar-led committee tries to be while picking one, they have to face the heat of the fans after noticeable snubs.

Hence, like every time, this time also, BCCI failed to share spots for some of the deserving candidates in the ODI setup. We will take a look at all of them, but before that, let’s take a look at the squad itself.

India’s squad for New Zealand ODIs

Shubman Gill (capt), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul (wk), Shreyas Iyer (vice-capt), Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Harshit Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Kuldeep Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Arshdeep Singh and Yashasvi Jaiswal

After the peek at the India ODI squad call-up, let’s take a look at which deserving players missed out on the squad.

1) Ishan Kishan

A glowing and red-hot pocket dynamo, Ishan Kishan missed out on the New Zealand ODI squad despite reports and rumours suggesting he is one of the hottest calls as the second choice wicketkeeper-batter after KL Rahul. He had two centuries out of his last two cricket matches, and one of them was in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, a 50-over contest.

[Ishan Kishan's recent stats]

While the 25-year-old has been out of the ODI setup for a considerable amount of time, his comeback with SMAT 2025 and his recent VHT form scream of his unmasking the beast within. Instead, Rishabh Pant, who is currently struggling with poor form, was prioritised ahead of the aggressive SRH batter.

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2) Ruturaj Gaikwad

Another highly shocking omission from the IND vs NZ ODI squad was the snub of Ruturaj Gaikwad. The CSK star, who currently surpassed Virat Kohli and tops the Indian List A average charts after Vijay Hazare domination, simply didn’t see it coming.

[Ruturaj Gaikwad's recent stats]

With Gaikwad having a century in VHT and a century in the recently concluded South Africa ODIs as well, all arrows pointed in the direction of a sure-shot call-up for the Kiwi clashes. However, luck didn’t favour him this time round.

3) Mohammed Shami

Mohammed Shami, the ace pace veteran of India who has been waiting for his national call-up after IPL 2025, was turned down again after the South Africa tour snub. 

Despite having elite figures in VHT and SMAT and an above-average Champions Trophy tournament, Mohammed Shami was ignored as Prasidh Krishna, who had an economy rate of 7.80 in SA ODIs, was picked.

[Mohammed Shami recent stats]

With the ODI and T20I comeback road now blurry in front of the 35-year-old’s eyes, the bowler does not have much to do except prove his worth time and again in the domestic setup, unheard by the national selectors.

4) Axar Patel

Axar Patel had an impressive VHT outing recently, where he slammed a century and also scalped two wickets. His recent international tour against South Africa also set him up as a key contributor in the Playing XI.

[Axar Patel in Vijay Hazare Trophy]

[Axar Patel in IND vs SA T20Is]

Washington Sundar was given a green ahead of him in the presence of Ravindra Jadeja in the IND vs NZ ODI squad, and the most that can be made of Axar Patel’s move is just to give him an ample amount of rest if India is carrying him into the T20 World Cup 2026.

Patel played a lot of cricket in the last four months, and though he deserved a spot in the NZ ODIs, resting him and playing Sundar might be the optimum move for the selectors for now.

5) Shardul Thakur

Shardul Thakur was in red-hot form in the Vijay Hazare Trophy and in SMAT as well. Though he is a bit rusty in the national setup, as he played his last ODI match for India in 2023, his recent form ought to catch the selectors’ eyes.

[Shardul Thakur recent stats]

Instead, Nitish Kumar Reddy was favoured, who, though good with the bat, was sub-par in VHT with 6 wickets from his five matches. Moreover, Shardul Thakur maintained an economy rate of 3.41 in VHT from 5 games, which again implies a bowler against whom batters struggled to get runs.

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