"If you've brought Dinesh Karthik back in the team, Shikhar Dhawan deserved a place too" - Suresh Raina on India's T20I squad for South Africa series

Former Indian batter Suresh Raina opined that the selectors should have given an opportunity to Shikhar Dhawan for the T20I series against South Africa.

The five-match series, which commences on June 9, will witness the comebacks of Hardik Pandya and Dinesh Karthik to the team. Meanwhile, the likes of Umran Malik and Arshdeep Singh have received their maiden call-ups.

Suresh Raina feels that Shikhar Dhawan has been hard done by the selectors despite being in excellent form in the IPL. The Delhi batter mustered 460 runs in 14 games in IPL 2022 while he accumulated 587 and 618 runs, respectively, in the two seasons before that.

Stating that Shikhar Dhawan will be disappointed by his omission, Suresh Raina said on the Cricket Live show on Star Sports:

"Obviously, Shikhar would have been disappointed. Every captain wants a player like him in the team. He is a fun-loving person who brightens up the environment. And he has always scored runs - be it domestic, international or T20."

"If you've brought Dinesh Karthik back in the team, Shikhar Dhawan deserved a place too. He has performed in the last 3-4 years and has scored runs non-stop. Somewhere deep down, he must be sad."

Shikhar Dhawan's excellent run of form in T20 cricket

Even though Shikhar hasn't got many opportunities to prove himself in the shortest format for Team India over the last couple of years, the 36-year-old has been brilliant in the IPL.

Since 2016, he has accumulated at least 450 runs in each of the seasons, with his tally going past 500 runs on five instances and beyond 600 runs on one occasion.

In the last three seasons, Dhawan has added to his tally 618, 587 and 460 runs respectively. Yet, he only featured in seven matches for Team India in the last two years. Dhawan has only managed to score 171 runs at an average of 24.42 and a strike rate of 111.03.

Team India's squad for the T20I series against South Africa:

KL Rahul (C), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Hardik Pandya, Venkatesh Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik