The Indian selectors have picked the 17-member team for the ODI series against South Africa in South Africa next year. It was quite surprising to see batsman Kedar Jadhav getting the nod for the series despite his poor performances in the recently-concluded series against Australia and New Zealand.
At the same time, discarded Indian left-handed batsmen Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh were omitted from the side yet again. This time, the veteran has duo cleared the YoYo test with flying colours, the main obstacle for them of late.
Unfortunately, they didn’t get picked in the Indian limited-overs side because of their form and lack of match practice going into a big series. Yuvraj played just one match in the Ranji Trophy for Punjab as he was more focused on clearing the YoYo test.
“With Yuvraj Singh, there were also the fitness issues. I am happy that he has cleared that fitness test. Since he has not played cricket for quite some time, let him have a good match time. We will definitely see him in the times to come,” said MSK Prasad after the squad for the T20I series against Sri Lanka was picked.
Just like Yuvraj, Raina gave the test on multiple occasions before clearing it on Wednesday. But, unlike Yuvi, Raina played all the matches for his side Uttar Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy still unfortunately suffered a pale patch throughout the season.
In the 12 innings, he played this season, the southpaw managed just 105 runs at an average of 11.66 with the highest score of just 33.
With the likes of Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik, Manish Pandey and Jadhav fighting for a place in the middle order, it is highly unlikely that the Indian fans will get to see either Raina or Yuvraj in the national squad in the near future.
