Former Indian batter Subramaniam Badrinath has backed the selectors’ decision to leave Rajat Patidar from the T20I squad for the upcoming tour of Ireland and England. Patidar recently led RCB to their second IPL title and was one of the contenders for a spot in the middle order.
The RCB captain amassed 501 runs in 14 innings at an average of 41.75 and a strike rate of 192.69 in the recently concluded season. Patidar took the attack on the opposition bowlers in the middle overs and made a huge difference with his aggressive approach.
Badrinath said Patidar is competing for a spot in the T20I team with batters like Tilak Varma, Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan and not Shivam Dube.
Badrinath said on his YouTube Channel, “Patidar comes in a different category than Shivam Dube. If Patidar warrants selection, he should be ahead of one of Tilak Varma, Ishan Kishan, or Shreyas Iyer. Definitely not, and hence his non-selection is justified. Replacing Dube with Patidar is like replacing a goalkeeper with a forward. Dube regularly bowls for the Indian team, so he comes into the finisher-all-rounder category.”
“Patidar comes in the exact category of Shreyas. So when Shreyas is the T20I captain, how can Patidar be in the squad? Tilak Varma has done brilliantly for India and has done well even in this IPL. Patidar has done amazingly well for RCB in the IPL, but there is no place for him in the Indian team. Even Vaibhav Suryavanshi had to break the door to come. Rajat Patidar hasn’t done that well to warrant such treatment.”
On the other hand, the former CSK batter questioned selectors’ for resting Hardik Pandya (recovering from an injury) and instead backing Nitish Kumar Reddy.
“Though they’ve said that he’s being rested with the 2027 World Cup in mind, what happens if Nitish Kumar Reddy does really well? Hardik has not played the full IPL and has had a poor run of captaincy and form. And now he’s not in the squads for the next three T20I assignments. Even if he’s tested or dealing with an injury, can’t his place be assessed after one series?,” questioned Badrinath (via the aforementioned source).
“These aren’t meaningless T20s. Will Hardik Pandya play only World Cup to World Cup? When you are removing a World Cup-winning captain in two months, 2027 is far away to be planning for. Anything can happen before that, so not playing Hardik in these three T20I series for the sake of the 2027 World Cup is something I can’t understand.”
India will play two T20Is against Ireland and five T20Is against England.
