Team India Press Conference: When Team India was selected for the Sri Lanka tour, many players were surprised not to be selected. Sanju Samson was once again ignored from the ODI team. Abhishek Sharma, and Ruturaj Gaikwad, who scored stormy centuries on the Zimbabwe tour, did not get a place in both the teams. Before leaving for the Sri Lanka tour, Chief Selector Ajit Agarkar asked on Monday why these people could not make it to the team. Agarkar also expressed his views on the future of Ravindra Jadeja, who was not selected for the ODI team.
Jadeja has retired from this format after winning the T20 World Cup-2024. But he will continue to play ODIs and Tests. However, he has not got a place in the ODI team for the Sri Lanka tour. The Chief Selector has said that the doors are not closed for Jadeja.
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There was a lot of controversy over not selecting Rituraj Gaikwad and Abhishek Sharma for the T20 series against Sri Lanka. Many former cricketers should have given a chance to Abhishek, who scored a century in his debut T20 series against Zimbabwe. At the same time, Rituraj, who batted well in this series, should also have got a chance. From Badrinath to Srikkanth, everyone advocated for the inclusion of Rituraj in the team. However, now Agarkar has given a statement about this. He said- Every player who misses out feels that cruel decisions were taken against him or tough decisions were taken. Sometimes this is what happens. It is difficult to fit everyone in 15 and our job is to select only 15 players. It is about making the most of the opportunities. Rinku missed the T20 World Cup without any fault. We have to finalize 15 only.
Shubhman Gill is all 3 format player: Srikkanth and Badrinath had criticized the inclusion of Shubhman Gill as vice-captain instead of Abhishek-Rituraj in T20. After leading the team on the Zimbabwe tour, Shubhman was made the vice-captain for the ODIs and then the T20 series on the Sri Lanka tour. Regarding this decision, Agarkar said- We feel that Shubhman Gill is a player of three formats. He has shown quality performance in the last one year. We also hear this from the dressing room. He has shown some good leadership qualities. We want to try to give him a leadership role. However, there is no guarantee of this.
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When Agarkar was asked about the team's senior player Ravindra Jadeja, he said that Jadeja has been given rest. Agarkar said that the doors are not closed for Jadeja. Agarkar said, "Jadeja is a very important player. We tried to keep Akshar and Jadeja together. When we announced the team, we had told that he has not been dropped but he has been given rest. The doors are not closed for Jadeja. He can still make a comeback. He is in our scheme of things. There are many series ahead, there are test series and Jadeja will play those series."
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