Maharashtra batter Ruturaj Gaikwad has received his maiden Test for the upcoming India tour to West Indies 2023. He has been named as the third opener alongside skipper Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill. However, the likes of Abhimanyu Easwaran and Priyank Panchal, who have played for India A, were completely ignored. Not to forget, the duo has been part of the team for quite a few Test series.
Former India opener, Wasim Jaffer recently expressed his shock over the exclusion of the duo. Jaffer took to Twitter and wrote how the likes of Easwaran and Panchal have been doing the hard yards in domestic cricket. On the other hand, Jaffer also questioned the sudden inclusion of Gaikwad in the Test side.
“Easwaran and Panchal have also been doing hard yards in Ranji and India A, knocking on Test doors for a long time. Just because they don’t play IPL, is it a case of out of sight out of mind? How did Ruturaj jump the queue?”
TEST Squad: Rohit Sharma (Capt), Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ajinkya Rahane (VC), KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), R Ashwin, R Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Axar Patel, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat, Navdeep Saini.
Like every player, Ruturaj Gaikwad was in contention – Dilip Vengsarkar
In reply to Jaffer’s comments, former India cricketer and chief selector, Dilip Vengsarkar has said that Gaikwad ‘didn’t jump the queue’.
“Red ball or white-ball doesn’t matter. It is all the same.”
“A good player will adjust to all formats. The thing we have to wait to see is how he performs in Test cricket. And I don’t understand this queue. Every player is in contention,” the ex-cricketer added.
