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India batter Ruturaj Gaikwad was excluded from India's squad for the upcoming three-match ODI series against New Zealand that will commence from January 11. This comes after the 28-year-old had performed brilliantly against South Africa and had also scored his maiden ODI ton. He was replaced in the team by Shreyas Iyer, who was out of action for months due to a rib cage injury. Though Iyer has barely achieved full fitness, he was still favoured by the selectors over Gaikwad.
Uthappa's verdict on Gaikwad's omission
Former India cricketer Robin Uthappa wasn't satisfied at all with Gaikwad's exclusion from the squad and highlighted how difficult it will be for Gaikwad to accept his omission from the team despite performing well.
“Buddy, it’s very hard to process. You have to make it make sense, right? It takes a toll, and you need to almost kind of find silver linings to kind of lean back on. In these circumstances, it’s not the easiest thing to do. It’s hectic, and you’ve to find a way to see silver linings. One of the challenges with Indian cricket is that you’re constantly operating on survival mode. And to switch from that mindset, it takes immense amount of resilience, immense amount of self-talk and positive self-talk, and you’ve to be able to be a silver linings guy," Uthappa said on his YouTube channel.
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Uthappa further went on to say that it is hard for players to succeed in Indian cricket if they hail from outside the major cricketing cities like Mumbai, Delhi or Punjab. He also urged Gaikwad to fight for his place in the team and give his all at the domestic circuit.
“And you’ve to find a way to keep fighting, keep fighting, keep fighting, especially if you don’t come from one of three big states in India, which is Mumbai, Delhi, and Punjab. If you’re not from one of those states, then you’ve to keep pushing yourself, pushing yourself," Uthappa added.
Gaikwad's numbers in ODIs
Meanwhile, Gaikwad has so far played nine ODIs in his career and has a total of 228 runs under his belt. He had made his debut in the format in 2022, but had failed to cement his place in the team due to the cut-throat competition. It remains to be seen if he will be able to to make a return to the ODI set-up in the coming months.
India's squad for New Zealand ODIs: 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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