IND vs AUS: 5 unlucky players to miss out on India's squad selection for opening two Tests

The All-India Senior Selection Committee announced (Jan 13) a 17-member squad for the first two Tests of the Border Gavaskar Trophy played in India between February 9 to March 13, 2023. The Indian team will look to be excellent in the bilateral series to retain the trophy. India defeated Australia by a margin of 2-1 in the 2020-21 edition of the competition.

This year, Rohit Sharma will lead the Indian side and carry the responsibility of retaining the trophy successfully. On the other hand, Australia will strive to quench their thirst of winning a Test series in India after almost 19 years.

In the recently announced 17-man India squad, a couple of players are missing who played a crucial role in the team's success in the last edition. The selectors also ignored some domestic performers who could have got an opportunity by the weight of their recent outings.

These 5 players were unlucky not to be included for the first two Tests against the Aussies

5. Abhimanyu Easwaran

Abhimanyu Easwaran holds a fantastic record for Bengal in first-class cricket. In 144 innings, he has scored 6314 runs, including 21 centuries and 26 fifties. With such numbers, he could have been added to the squad. However, the selectors kept him away from the 17-men Test squad for the Border Gavaskar Trophy.

Last year, Easwaran toured with team India for the two-match Test series against Shakib Al Hasan & his men in Bangladesh. In the absence of injured Rohit Sharma, Easwaran was called up to add value to the squad. However, he didn’t get the chance to play a game as the team assigned KL Rahul and Shubman Gill the responsibility to open the innings for India.

With Rohit Sharma's presence in the squad for the crucial Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Easwaran stood no chance to get selected for the marquee event. However, the Bengal batter could’ve made it to the squad as an extra opener but the selectors picked Ishan Kishan over him. Recently, Ishan played some impressive knocks in ODIs, which helped him to gain the confidence of the team management and earn a spot in Tests too.