'As cricketers we don't understand that'- Kapil Dev questions selectors' logic for benching Suryakumar Yadav immediately after his T20I ton against Sri Lanka

India’s legendary captain Kapil Dev has questioned the national selectors’ logic behind excluding Suryakumar Yadav for the first One Day International against Sri Lanka last week despite him having scored a match-winning century a few days earlier.

Kapil has mentioned that the selectors need to get their strategies in place if they are planning the Indian squad for this year’s ODI World Cup as excluding a player immediately after he succeeded in bagging a Player of the Match award is not the way forward.

They should have one set of teams for a period of time: Kapil Dev

"I think we should leave it to the cricket board what they (selectors) plan. There are so many cricketers coming so everyone should get a chance to play. From what I can see from the outside is that they will have three teams - one each for T20Is, ODIs and Tests. That way, you can have a bigger pool," said Kapil Dev while speaking to Gulf News.

"Having said that, they should have one set of teams for a period of time. You can change an odd person I can understand that. But if you Man of the Match (Suryakumar Yadav) is getting dropped the next day and somebody else comes in, we as cricketers don't understand that," he added.

Suryakumar Yadav who is currently the top-ranked batter in the longest format made the most of his purple patch scoring an outstanding 51-ball 112 in the series-deciding third T20I against Sri Lanka earlier this month.

More importantly, the Mumbai batter also succeeded in registering his third century in this format in less than six months. Unfortunately for Yadav, he was benched for the first two ODIs thereafter and was only included in the playing XI for the inconsequential third game last weekend where he walked back for just four runs against his name.

The 32-year-old will now be looking to make amends in the ongoing New Zealand One Dayers. He had scored a 26-ball 31 in the first ODI.

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