Former Indian opener Sadagoppan Ramesh has questioned the selection committee, led by Ajit Agarkar, for not picking a single player from the Royal Challengers Bengaluru franchise for the three-match T20I series against Zimbabwe.
Speaking on his Instagram handle, while Ramesh was impressed with a few selections like Shreyas Iyer and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, he has vented his frustration over Suryansh Shedge and Ravi Bishnoi’s selection calls.
“T20I selections clearly happen based on IPL performances but only for some. India’s current T20I captain Shreyas Iyer has clearly been picked based on the IPL. Yet, there is not a single player selected from two-time defending champions RCB. Similarly, Vaibhav Suryavanshi has been selected based on his IPL performance but from the same IPL, they selected a Ravi Bishnoi in India’s 11 when he couldn’t even find a place in the playing 11 for his franchise in the entire second half of the IPL,” Sadagoppan Ramesh said on his Instagram handle.
“Shedge didn’t even bowl a single over in the IPL, yet, was selected as an all-rounder for India. So this clearly shows that IPL performances are considered for some but not for several others,” he added.
Additionally, the ex-Indian opener reckoned that while bowlers like Bhuvneshwar Kumar did exceptionally well in the IPL 2026 season, selectors picked bowlers like Harsh Dubey, Ashok Sharma, Yash Thakur and Mayank Yadav, who didn’t have a decent edition.
“If selections happen based on an exam for 104 students, the obvious metric will be picking the ten highest scorers. If we take this to the IPL, there were 104 bowlers who picked up atleast one wicket and qualified for the Purple Cap list in the 2026 season. Five of the top 10 are Indian bowlers, including Bhuvneshwar Kumar,” said Ramesh.
“Yet, the bowlers selected for the Zimbabwe series include Harsh Dubey, who’s 47th, Ashok Sharma, who’s 55th, Yash Thakur, who’s 89th out of 104, and Mayank Yadav, who’s not even in the list. After playing three matches for India in 2024, Mayank Yadav has played only six matches,” he concluded.
India T20I squad: Shreyas Iyer (c), Tilak Varma (vc), Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan (wk), Prabhsimran Singh (wk), Shivam Dube, Suryansh Shedge, Rinku Singh, Harsh Dubey, Ravi Bishnoi, Prince Yadav, Yash Thakur, Ashok Sharma, Mayank Yadav
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