Many fans expected the return of Indian veteran opener Shikhar Dhawan to the Indian T20I side for the South Africa series as regulars Virat Kohli, and Rohit Sharma were supposed to be rested to prepare and fly to England early to play the cancelled fifth Test match.
However, the latest reports suggest that the Indian head coach Rahul Dravid had a hand in not selecting the Dhawan and the selectors agreed to it. The former India captain had also informed Dhawan about his non-selection before the selectors met on Sunday, a top BCCI official revealed to a media outlet.
“Shikhar has been a great servant of Indian cricket for over a decade. But in T20s, you have to give chances to youngsters who have been doing well. Rahul had to make the tough call and we all agreed. Shikhar was informed by Rahul before the team was announced on Sunday,” a senior BCCI official told InsideSport.IN.
The southpaw, who turned out for Punjab Kings (PBKS) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 season, scored more than 450 runs for the seventh straight season. Earlier reports even suggested that Dhawan was in line along with current Gujarat Titans (GT) skipper Hardik Pandya to be appointed captain of India for the five-match T20 series but the selectors decided to move ahead with Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) skipper KL Rahul instead.
With less than five months left for the ICC T20 World Cup in Australia, Dhawan's exclusion from the Indian team is an indication of the direction that the team management is leaning toward ahead of the showpiece cricketing event.
The Indian squad for the South Africa series will have young pacers Arshdeep Singh and Umran Malik in the side as they look to make their national team debut. Meanwhile, Kuldeep Yadav, Hardik Pandya, and Dinesh Karthik have all made comeback to the Indian side after their stellar performances in IPL 2022.
The five-match India vs South Africa T20Is will begin on June 9 in New Delhi.
