'How Did Ruturaj Gaikwad Jump The Queue?': Former Opener Raises Questions Over India's Test Squad for West Indies Tour

The BCCI on Friday announced a 16-man squad for the two Test in West Indies for which Cheteshwar Pujara and Umesh Yadav seemingly have been dropped. Instead, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Mukesh Kumar has been given a maiden call-ups.

The squad make up gives a hint that the team management has kickstarted the transition but not everybody seems to be happy with the choice of players for the tour.

Former India opener Wasim Jaffer has questioned the logic behind taking as many as four openers for the two Tests and not rewarding Mumbai batter Sarfaraz Khan has been scoring truckload of runs in first-class cricket for the past few seasons.

With Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill the two first choice openers, Jaiswal and Gaikwad will be their backups.

“What’s the need of four openers?” Jaffer asked in a note he shared on Twitter. “Instead they could have picked Sarfaraz as extra middle order bat to honour his consistent domestic performances.”

He then asked why the likes of Abhimanyu Easwaran and Priyank Panchal have fallen behind someone like Ruturaj Gaikwad.

“Easwaran and Panchal have also been doing hard yards in Ranji and India A, knocking on Test doors for a long time. Just because they don’t play IPL, is it a case of out of sight out of mind? How did Ruturaj jump the queue?” Jaffer said.

Among the notable omissions is Mohammed Shami who presumably has been rested. Jaffer disagrees with the decision to give the veteran pacer a break.,

“Surprised to see Shami rested that too after a month long break. I feel he’s the type of bowler that the more he bowls the better/fitter and in form he gets,” he said.

India will start their next World Test Championship cycle with the West Indies tour that is slated to get underway from July 12.

India are also scheduled to play three ODIs and five T20Is during the tour.