India vs Bangladesh: Irfan Pathan surprised over Ravindra Jadeja's exclusion in T20Is

The Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) selection committee recently announced the squads for the T20I and Test matches in the upcoming series against Bangladesh starting November 3. The Men in Blue will play three 20-over international matches against the tigers and two Test matches under the ICC Test Championship annals.

The T20I side sees some surprise picks with Virat Kohli being rested and Rohit Sharma will lead in his stead. New names like Shivam Dube and Sanju Samson were added to the list, while Shardul Thakur was called back. Remaining players like Washington Sundar, Krunal Pandya, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey and the Chahar cousins- Deepak and Rahul were retained from the South Africa series which was drawn 1-1.

Irfan Pathan questions why Ravindra Jadeja was not picked for T20Is

One big surprise came in the form of Ravindra Jadeja’s name missing from the T20I squad. He had played both the matches against South Africa and then played a huge role in India whitewashing South Africa in the Test matches.

Jadeja impressed one and all with both the bat and the ball, scoring 212 runs with two half-centuries, the best score of 91 and picked 13 wickets with the best bowling of 4/87. Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan took to Twitter and shared his surprise with the fans. “Who else is surprise not to see @imjadeja in the t 20 vs Bangladesh ? He is batting the tallest in his career at the moment…” Irfan tweeted.

Who else is surprise not to see @imjadeja in the t 20 vs Bangladesh ? He is batting the tallest in his career at the moment…

— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) October 25, 2019

While many fans shared the all-rounder’s surprise at Jadeja being not included in the squad, some of the other fans pointed out that the selectors were managing the Saurashtra player’s workload and hence was being rested and given a break. It may be the real reason behind him being left out of the team. MSK Prasad, on the other hand, mentioned that since Krunal Pandya and Jadeja share similar skillset, they went with only one of them.

Meanwhile, Jadeja has 33 wickets in 44 T20I matches for the Indian team with the best bowling of 3/48 at an economy of 7.12. Overall, he has 152 wickets in 232 T20 matches with a best of 5/16 at an economy of 7.60. The left-arm batsman-bowler has seen a rise in his fortunes after being dropped from the limited-overs plans in the aftermath of the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy. But he forced his way back into the team in Asia Cup 2018 and has become a permanent feature in the team.

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