“Just because they don’t play IPL?” - Wasim Jaffer slams team selection for West Indies tour

Former India opener Wasim Jaffer expressed displeasure over the squads picked for the upcoming tour of West Indies, particularly the Test team.

He questioned why Sarfaraz Khan, Abhimanyu Easwaran and Priyank Panchal were snubbed while picking the red-ball squad and also expressed surprise over Ruturaj Gaikwad jumping the queue.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India on Friday (June 23) named the Test and ODI squads for the multi-format tour of West Indies. While Gaikwad, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Bengal pacer Mukesh Kumar earned their maiden call-ups to the Test team, Sarfaraz continued to be snubbed, while there was no place for prolific domestic openers Easwaran and Panchal, too.

Sharing his thoughts on India’s team selection for the West Indies tour, Jaffer took to Twitter and made a number of observations:

“What’s the need for four openers? (Rohit, Shubman Gill, Gaikwad and Jaiswal) Instead, they could have picked Sarfaraz as extra middle order bat to honour his consistent domestic performances.”

The domestic legend also criticised the move to pick Gaikwad ahead of some more experienced openers:

“Easwaran and Panchal have been doing the hard yards in Ranji and India A, knocking on Test doors for a long time. Just because they don’t play IPL, is it a case of out of sight out of mind? How did Ruturaj jump the queue?”

Jaffer further expressed surprise at the selectors’ decision to rest seasoned pacer Mohammed Shami. According to the former opener, the fast bowler is someone who gets better the more he plays:

“Surprised to see Shami rested and that too after a month long break. I feel he’s the type of bowler that the more he bowls the better/fitter and in form he gets.”

While Shami has been rested, Umesh Yadav has been dropped after a poor performance in the World Test Championship final, while Navdeep Saini has been handed a Test recall.

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India’s squads for West Indies tour

Test squad: Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), KS Bharat (wicket-keeper), Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Axar Patel, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat, Navdeep Saini

ODI squad: Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Surya Kumar Yadav, Sanju Samson (wicket-keeper), Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya (vice-captain), Shardul Thakur, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Mohd. Siraj, Umran Malik, Mukesh Kumar