Fans and former cricketers surprised after Rohit Sharma’s exclusion from Test squad for West Indies series

After claiming the Asia Cup title for the seventh time, Indian fans and former cricket players were impressed with the abilities of stand-in captain Rohit Sharma who claimed that he is ready for bearing the captaincy responsibilities ‘when the opportunity comes’. With his run-rich form in UAE, chances were high that Sharma would get called back to the Test squad. However, the selectors thought otherwise and the Indian ODI vice-captain failed to secure his place in the Indian Test squad for the two-match series against West Indies starting October 4. 

Former cricketer and Indian captain Sourav Ganguly took to Twitter to express his disappointment over Sharma’s omission: 

Great win Rohit and the team @ImRo45 ..u were exceptional...I get surprised every time I don’t see ur name in the test team ..it’s not far away ..

— Sourav Ganguly (@SGanguly99) September 29, 2018

Also, veteran off-spinner and Sharma’s former Mumbai Indians team-mate Harbhajan Singh slammed the selectors for the same: 

No @ImRo45 in test team against West Indies..what r the selectors thinking actually??? Anyone have a clue ??? plz let me know as I can’t digest this

— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) September 30, 2018

While fans and cricketers lashed out at selectors for excluding Sharma, several people were happy to see in-form Mayank Agarwal getting his national call. With 1160 Ranji Trophy runs, 723 Vijay Hazare Trophy runs, two centuries on the England tour, a double hundred against South Africa A, and a hundred and a fifty in the Quadrangular Series last month, Agarwal’s inclusion seems to be the right choice.

Earlier, Sharma had made a return to red-ball cricket in December 2017 in Sri Lanka where he scored a century with two fifty-plus knocks which assured his place in the team for Test series against South Africa. But Sharma failed to perform against the Proteas and was dropped from the Test team.

Squad for two Test matches against West Indies: Virat Kohli (captain), KL Rahul, Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur.