IRE vs IND: 3 unlucky Indian players to miss out on T20I squad

India have named a 17-member squad for the upcoming two-match T20I series against Ireland and most of the names that are part of the ongoing home series against South Africa have been included. Hardik Pandya is set to lead the national team for the first time while Bhuvneshwar Kumar will be his deputy in the series.

Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer will be part of the England Test tour and hence will miss the Ireland T20Is. Suryakumar Yadav who suffered an injury during his stint for Mumbai Indians in IPL 2022 has made a comeback while Rahul Tripathi earned his maiden call-up to the Indian side after his impressive IPL season.

The two-match T20I series, which starts on the 26th of Jun, will act as good preparation for the T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia. Meanwhile, few notable names have been overlooked for the Ireland tour despite enjoying a good run in this year’s IPL. Hence, it will be hard from here on for them to be in contention for the T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia.

3 unlucky players from the India squad to miss out on Ireland tour

1. Shikhar Dhawan

Shikhar Dhawan yet again could not find a place in the Indian T20I squad despite KL Rahul’s injury. India has invested in Ishan Kishan at the top of the order as the dashing opener has shown a lot of promise in recent times. He has moved into the top ten rankings for batters in T20Is and is likely to get an extended run leading up to the T20 World Cup 2022.

However, Kishan’s progress has meant that the selectors might not consider recalling Shikhar Dhawan into the T20I side despite his good form in IPL over the last three to four seasons. The left-hander finished with 460 runs in 14 games in IPL 2022 for the Punjab Kings and was the top run-scorer for his franchise.

He has also improved on his strike rate concerns and has developed a lot of shots in his book. Despite all this, Dhawan has been shown the door. Notably, the 36-year-old led India in the tour to Sri Lanka in 2021 in absence of big names and it was the last time Dhawan featured in the Indian T20I side.

2. Rahul Tewatia

Rahul Tewatia was one of the unsung heroes for Gujarat Titans in their successful title-winning campaign in IPL 2022 and he proved his match-winning abilities more than once. The all-rounder was picked up for huge bucks in the mega auction this year and he repaid the faith having adapted to the role asked of him.

Tewatia played more as a finisher for the Titans this year and he is quite handy with his leg-spin although his bowling wasn’t needed much in IPL 2022. He impressed a lot of experts with his calm head and played some impactful innings to help his side cross the line in crunch situations.

Overall, Tewatia scored 217 runs in 16 innings in IPL 2022 at an average of 31 and a strike rate of 147.61. However, India have an array of all-rounders in the squad already with the skipper Hardik Pandya, Venkatesh Iyer, Deepak Hooda and Axar Patel and it meant that there was no place for the 29-year-old despite his lucrative form in IPL 2022.

3. T Natarajan

India currently has a lot of left-arm seamers coming up through the ranks and T Natarajan is certainly one among those who had a brilliant start to his international career. However, injuries seemed to have halted his progress and he had to fight his way back into contention through the IPL platform.

Natarajan is one of the death overs specialists who can nail the yorkers consistently and he is quite useful with the new ball as well with his ability to swing the ball back into the right-handers. He had a good IPL season for the Sunrisers Hyderabad where he picked up 18 wickets in 11 games at an average of 22.55.

His economy rate went higher at times as he had to bowl the tough overs, but he was consistent in terms of takinh wickets, an area where India has been lacking. With Arshdeep Singh in the squad already providing the same skill set, Natarajan  wasn’t given a chance. However, Natarajan would consider himself unlucky given his current form.