5 players who deserved a place in India's T20I squad for West Indies tour

Changes were expected for the upcoming T20I series against the West Indies. Bold decisions were supposed to strengthen the Indian team under the leadership of new selection committee chief Ajit Agarkar but somewhere down the line, some of the decisions deserve more attention than others.

Continuing with Hardik Pandya as the captain of the T20I side is arguably the right call as all the other senior players are being rested ahead of the ODI World Cup but dropping certain in-form cricketers has created quite a buzz on social media.

Since press conferences do not amount to a lot of information in modern India, thus it is difficult for the fans to understand the reasons behind certain decisions. Back in 2019, MSK Prasad cleared the reason behind dropping Ambati Rayudu from the ODI World Cup squad and even though a large portion of the fans didn’t like it, there at least was clarity.

However, this is missing in Indian cricket at the moment. So, cricket enthusiasts are not quite sure if the likes of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli will ever make their return to T20I cricket or why the following five players were not considered for the upcoming T20I series against the West Indies:

5. Jitesh Sharma

Jitesh Sharma is arguably one of those batters who ticks all the boxes to feature in a T20I side but unfortunately, there was no place for him in the upcoming tour to West Indies. He has been extremely consistent in this format and on top of that, his keeping skills have been top-notch. Thus, Jitesh was expected to make it to the squad but the selectors instead preferred Sanju Samson and Ishan Kishan and rightfully so.

Both Samson and Kishan did reasonably well in the last edition of the Indian Premier League and thus, there’s no concrete reason behind dropping them. However, so did Jitesh. In 14 matches, the Maharashtra-born cricketer hit 309 runs at a brilliant strike rate of 156.06. He fulfilled his role for Punjab Kings and thus, deserved a spot in the squad but the cricketer will instead have to wait to make it.

Notably, the upcoming domestic season and the 17th edition of the IPL will be very important for the cricketer. If he performs on a consistent basis, Jitesh may very well make it to the 2024 T20 World Cup squad as India still lack a consistent power hitter in the middle.

Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja are two brilliant options to have but both have struggled to perform on the biggest stage on a consistent basis and that’s where someone like Jitesh can come in.