Rajat Patidar And...? 3 Deserving Indian Stars Not Selected For England T20Is

Rajat Patidar with Virat Kohli (Source: @CricCrazyJohns/X.com)Rajat Patidar with Virat Kohli (Source: @CricCrazyJohns/X.com)

India is a country full of cricket talent and whenever there is a team selected for any series and for any format, there are some deserving players who miss out. On Saturday, 11th of January, BBCI announced the squad for the five-match T20I series against England and the team includes some big changes.

Mohammed Shami is back after a long break and so are the stars who played in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. However, there are some consistent performers from domestic circuit who have done well in IPL or for India in the past, but have not been able to make it to the Suryakumar Yadav-led squad.

Let's now see who are the three biggest and deserving names to miss out from India's T20I squad for England series.

Rajat Patidar

The right-handed batter from Madhya Pradesh has been doing well in domestic circuit for quite a long time now. He recently led his state to the final of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and led from the front with 428 runs in nine matches. He scored his runs at a strike-rate of 186.09 and at an average of 61.14 and showed his class in pressure situations as well.

Overall, he has 2463 runs in 75 T20 matches with an average of 38.48 and strike-rate of 158.18, making him one of the finest players of the shortest format in the country. He has been brilliant for RCB in IPL as well and can bat from number 3 to number number six as well. Thus, the power-hitter surely deserves a chance in T20Is, but has missed out again despite standing out with his leadership and performances under pressure.

Ruturaj Gaikwad

The Maharashtra and CSK skipper has been the talk of the town due to his non-inclusion for quite a long time now. He has a brilliant record for India in T20Is as he has scored his runs close to the average of 40 and a strike rate of 143.53. He was brilliant during his last series for India against Zimbabwe and has shown the ability to open as well as bat in the middle order.

Over the years, Ruturaj Gaikwad has scored truckloads of runs in domestic cricket as well as in IPL and he capped off Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2024 with a brilliant 97 off 48 balls. Therefore, it is a surpise to see Gaikwad's exclusion on consistent basis despite runs and flexibility as a batter and he is surely a deserving candidate to miss out.

Ishan Kishan

The wicketkeeper batter was once a regular for India in white-ball formats. However, he took a break during India's tour to South Africa after World Cup 2023 and since then has not found a place in the Indian side. However, he remains a quality player and since his comeback into the Indian domestic circuit, the wicketkeeper batter has shown his class in quite a few games.

In IPL 2024, he scored 320 runs at a strike-rate of close to 150 while in the SMAT 2024, Kishan showed flashes of brilliance during his knock of 77 from just 23 balls against AP. Overal, Ishan Kishan has close to 5000 runs in T20s and deserved to be selected as second wicketkeeper in place of Dhruv Jurel who has not set the world on fire in T20s so far.