As many as eight Indian cricketers who are currently in New Zealand as part of India's ODI squad will head home while 11 new players will fly to Bangladesh to form the Indian squad for the three-match ODI series there. While the return of captain Rohit Sharma, vice-captain KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Axar Patel, and Mohammed Shami was on the expected lines, what defies logic is the absence of Shubman Gill, Sanju Samson, Deepak Hooda, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, and Umran Malik.
Former India opener Aakash Chopra asked some tough questions to the Chetan Sharma-led senior selection committee, which is on its way out but not before they named four different squads at one go in what perhaps was their last selection meeting. Chopra was 'baffled' by the selection that 'defied logic.'
He couldn't understand why Shubman Gill was not named for the Bangladesh ODIs despite being India's best opener in that format this year along with Shikhar Dhawan. But what really shook Chopra was the axing of Sanju Samson. Samson, who didn't get a game in the T20I series in New Zealand, was dropped from the second ODI after playing the series opener, where he made a decent contribution.However, he will be replaced by Ishan Kishan, who interestingly was not a part of the New Zealand ODIs but will return for the three-match ODI series in Bangladesh. Big guns like Rohit, Kohli, Rahul were given a break from the entire New Zealand tour after the T20 World Cup.
