“It's very unfair” - Kris Srikkanth slams selectors for dropping Ruturaj Gaikwad from NZ ODI series

Former Indian chairman of selectors Kris Srikkanth has opened up on Ruturaj Gaikwad’s omission from the 15-man ODI squad for the forthcoming New Zealand ODI series, starting on Sunday, January 11, in Vadodara.

Speaking on his YouTube channel, Srikkanth has joked that Ruturaj has to become a keeper-batter to make it to the Indian ODI squad, adding that the in-form batter should’ve been included in the squad instead of all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy.

"Maybe Ruturaj Gaikwad can say I've played with Dhoni so I can also keep. That's the only way he might get selected in the team. Shreyas Iyer is a certainty, so he should have been included. But Ruturaj Gaikwad should have been in the 15. Instead of having Nitish Kumar Reddy, keep him in the 15,” Srikkanth said on his YouTube channel.

"It's saying even if you score a century, there is no chance. Now Gaikwad has to start from scratch and score a mountain of runs because they'll forget this century against South Africa. They've dropped him also so he has to score big again in domestic cricket,” he added.

Notably, Gaikwad smacked an excellent century in the second ODI against South Africa in the recently concluded three-match series. Speaking on the exclusion, Srikkanth felt that players might tend to fade away if they’re not in the scheme of things.

"Yashasvi Jaiswal also won't play in the 11 but at least he's in the reserves. So by being in the 15, he will at least be in the scheme of things. But with this selection, they've removed Ruturaj Gaikwad from the overall scheme of things and from the system itself. And when you're removed from the system itself, everyone, including the public and the selectors, will forget about him," he noted.

"It's very unfair. The whole idea of performance in an international match goes to waste. An effortless century like that is going to waste. Memory is short for everybody, so they'll forget it soon,” he concluded.

India’s ODI squad vs NZ: Shubman Gill (C), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul (WK), Shreyas Iyer (VC)*, Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd Siraj, Harshit Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Kuldeep Yadav, Rishabh Pant (WK), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Arshdeep Singh, Yashasvi Jaiswal.

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