'Well-deserved, hard-earned' - Twitter reacts as BCCI name Ruturaj Gaikwad, Venkatesh Iyer for South Africa ODIs

Both players found a spot in the 18-member ODI squad announced by BCCI for South Africa series.

By Pratyay Tiwari

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Ruturaj Gaikwad
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Ruturaj Gaikwad. (Photo Source: Twitter)

Madhya Pradesh all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer was rewarded with a maiden ODI call-up on December 31 when the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced an 18-member squad for the three-ODI series against South Africa.

Iyer had a sensational Vijay Hazare Trophy 2021, where he was the joint-fifth leading run-scorer, amassing 379 runs at a magnificent average of 63.16, including two centuries and a half-century, while he also picked nine wickets at a 5.75 economy rate in six games. He blasted 151 against Chandigarh during the group stage to become the first batter to score a 150-plus score while batting at No.6 in the tournament history.

Iyer had only recently received his maiden T20I call-up during the home series against New Zealand after an impressive run with the Kolkata Knight Riders in the second leg of the 2021 IPL, where he tallied 370 runs at 41.11 in ten innings, including four fifty-plus scores. His promising show culminated in his retention for a whopping INR 8 Crore – 40 times more than his base price of INR 20 lakh at which he was bought by the franchise in the previous year.

Iyer was not the only VHT 2021 performer to make it into the squad, as the prolific opener Ruturaj Gaikwad maintained his spot too, after having made his debut in the 50-over format earlier this year against Sri Lanka with a second-string squad when the first-choice players were in the United Kingdom for the World Test Championship final and the five-Test series against England.

If Iyer’s VHT 2021 performance was brilliant, Gaikwad’s was staggering – he tallied a chart-topping 603 at a belief-defying 150.75, including four centuries, three of which were successive.

Before that, he ended up winning the Orange Cap with season champions Chennai Super Kings in the 2021 IPL, where he amassed 635 from 16 innings, with a century and four half-centuries. Gaikwad scored his runs at a strike rate of 136.26. Like Iyer, Gaikwad was also retained by his IPL franchise, albeit for INR 6 crores.

As for the upcoming ODIs, the series will not be counted towards the ICC ODI World Cup Super League and will be played as a standalone event instead. The series kickstarts on January 19 in Paarl, which will also host the second ODI on January 21 before the final one in Cape Town on January 23.

Here’s how Twitter reacted:

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