Ruturaj Gaikwad, who leads Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League, was left out of India’s T20I squad for the tour of Sri Lanka. Despite scoring 133 runs in three innings against Zimbabwe during the five-match T20I series, Gaikwad was not considered, and the decision was met with criticism.

“All we see is a lion’s walk,” CSK posted on social media. Meanwhile, Ajit Agarkar, the chief selector, explained the reasons behind the exclusion of some players.

“We can only select 15 players, and the ones who have been given a chance are not bad players. The players who have missed out are not out of the equation. If the selected ones fail to perform or there is an injury issue, those omitted can be recalled,” Ajit Agarkar said.

Ex-CSK batter Subramanian Badrinath expressed his unhappiness over Gaikwad’s being overlooked. “You need a bad guy image to play for India. It seems you should be in a relationship with a Bollywood actress, have a good manager, and have body tattoos,” he said.

India squad for T20I series against Sri Lanka

Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Ꮪhubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rinku Singh, Riyan Parag, Rishabh Pant, Sanju Samson, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Khaleel Ahmed, Mohammed Siraj