"You have to feel for him" - Aakash Chopra on Ruturaj Gaikwad's non-selection in India's T20I squad for West Indies series

Aakash Chopra feels Ruturaj Gaikwad was slightly unfortunate not to be picked in India's squad for the T20I series against the West Indies.

The selectors picked a 15-member Indian squad for the five-match series against the Windies on Wednesday, July 5. Gaikwad, who has been picked for the preceding Test and ODI series against the same opponents, was ignored for the shortest format.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra observed that Gaikwad is a noticeable omission but added that all openers cannot be picked:

"When the selection happens, the discussion is on who is missing rather than who all are there. You have picked three openers - Ishan Kishan, Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal. A noticeable absentee is Ruturaj Gaikwad. You have to feel for him. You expected him to be there but everyone cannot come."

The former Indian opener acknowledged that picking Ishan Kishan ahead of Gaikwad is debatable, reasoning:

"There can be a discussion that what are you doing as Ishan Kishan hasn't done too well recently in T20Is and the IPL also wasn't that good, it was okay-okay and Ruturaj had a very good one."

However, Chopra pointed out that the selectors might have wanted to persist with the opener who has been earmarked for the role for the last couple of years:

"However, not only in the last 12 months but Ishan Kishan played in the Dubai T20 World Cup as well, I remember he came to open in place of Rohit Sharma in one match. So they probably want to keep the continuity in mind."

Kishan has aggregated 653 runs at a slightly underwhelming average of 25.11 in the 27 T20Is he has played. Gaikwad has endured an even leaner run, managing just 135 runs at a lowly average of 16.87 in nine T20Is.

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"Yashasvi Jaiswal now is the flavor of the month" - Aakash Chopra

Yashasvi Jaiswal was in scintillating form in IPL 2023. [P/C: iplt20.com]

Aakash Chopra feels Yashasvi Jaiswal has been deservedly picked as one of the openers, considering his outstanding performances in IPL 2023:

"Yashasvi Jaiswal now is the flavor of the month. Of course, that should have been the case as well. When he had an IPL season like that, we knew that he is going to do amazing things. He is already part of India's Test squad."

The cricketer-turned-commentator concluded by opining that Shubman Gill will be one of the openers with either Kishan or Jaiswal being his partner at the top of the order:

"You will see either Ishan Kishan or Yashasvi, one of the two left-handers, opening alongside Shubman Gill. The sort of IPL he had, you want to keep him."

Gill was the Orange Cap winner in IPL 2023, amassing 890 runs at an average of 59.33 and a strike rate of 157.80 in 17 innings. Jaiswal was the fifth-highest run-getter in the tournament, smashing 625 runs in 14 innings at an average of 48.08 and a strike rate of 163.61.