3 players who were unlucky to miss out on India's squad for the Australia T20I series

On Monday, November 20, Team India announced their squad for the upcoming five-match T20I series against World Cup champions Australia.

The Men in Blue are still reeling from their heartbreaking defeat in the final of the 2023 World Cup, and Suryakumar Yadav is the only player from the XI to be named in the squad to take on the Aussies in the shortest format. SKY will captain the squad, which wears a young and fresh look.

India’s squad: Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad (vice-captain), Ishan Kishan, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Shivam Dube, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar, Shreyas Iyer (for last two T20Is).

While there are plenty of notable additions, there are also a few players who have unfortunately not been picked for the rubber. Despite performing well in domestic competitions and the Indian Premier League, these names have been excluded.

Here are three Indian players who were unlucky not to be picked in India's squad for the T20I series against Australia.

Honorable Mention: Bhuvneshwar Kumar

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#3 Sanju Samson

Sanju Samson dives, Australia v India - T20 Game 3

What does Sanju Samson need to do to be given a regular run in the Indian team? The dynamic batter has received the short end of the stick from the selectors far too often, and things only seem to be getting worse.

After missing out on the Asian Games and the World Cup, Samson now finds himself out of the picture for the Australia T20Is as well. Ishan Kishan and Jitesh Sharma have been picked ahead of him, even though the former boasts a terrible record in the format.

Samson's middling Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy returns - 138 runs in six innings - may have contributed to his exclusion. But it's not like the selectors have rewarded those who have done well in India's domestic T20 tournament, as the following names on this list indicate.

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#2 Abhishek Sharma

Abhishek Sharma played the Emerging Teams Asia Cup earlier this year

Abhishek Sharma was one of Punjab's standout players as they romped to the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy title. The opening batter tallied 485 runs in 10 matches at an average of 48.5 and a stupendous strike rate of 192.46, with three fifties and two hundreds to his name.

Abhishek was part of India's campaign in the Emerging Teams Asia Cup earlier this year, but he hasn't made the grade for the senior team. The presence of several left-handers, including Tilak Varma, Ishan Kishan, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shivam Dube, Rinku Singh and Axar Patel, may have contributed to his exclusion.

Nevertheless, Abhishek can feel hard done by after the kind of campaign he had for Punjab. He also did well in the 2022 Indian Premier League for the SunRisers Hyderabad, the only season among the last two in which he had a stable role.

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#1 Riyan Parag

Riyan Parag was the top scorer in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy

If Abhishek was great in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, Riyan Parag was simply sensational. The Assam skipper almost single-handedly helped his team make a deep run into the tournament, contributing on a regular basis in all departments.

Parag scored an incredible 510 runs in 10 matches at an average of 85 and a strike rate of 182.79, with as many as seven fifties. He cleared the boundary a whopping 40 times and led from the front in every sense of the word. The 22-year-old also picked up 11 wickets at an economy rate of 7.29, often providing crucial breakthroughs.

Another player who was in India's squad for the Emerging Asia Cup, Parag is just too good for domestic cricket right now. It wouldn't be a stretch to claim that he deserves a call-up to the senior team, and him missing out on the Australia T20Is is rather disappointing.