Yuzvendra Chahal has reacted for the first time after he wasn't picked in the 15-member squad for the T20I series against Australia.
On Monday, BCCI announced the squad for the five-match T20I series which is scheduled to start on Thursday, November 23.
Several players including the ones who were part of the team in the recently concluded World Cup haven't made it to the list as the team management decided to go with so many youngsters considering the future.
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However, Yuzvendra Chahal's exclusion once again came out as a big surprise and the leg-spinner was quick to react to that.
Chahal took to social media and posted a smiling emoji on a post on his account on X while showing his frustration.
😊
— Yuzvendra Chahal (@yuzi_chahal) November 20, 2023
While Chahal missed out on the selection, the likes of Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, and Ravi Bishnoi were included as the spin options for the series.
Notably, Chahal is one of the best leg-spinners in the world and is India’s highest wicket-taker in the shortest format of the game.
In 80 matches, Chahal has taken 96 wickets with a career-best of 6/25.
Chahal has been overlooked for the national team selection for a while now despite being in action. He last played a T20I for India during the Caribbean tour but wasn’t selected for the Ireland tour that followed.
While Chahal missed out on the selection for the Asia Cup and ODI World Cup as well, he wasn't picked up for the Asian Games as a young squad, led by Ruturaj Gaikwad who returned with a gold medal from China.
The 33-year-old last played an ODI match in January and he was part of the squad on the West Indies tour as well but didn't get to play as the team preferred Kuldeep Yadav as the only wrist-spinner with finger spinners Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin alongside.
Talking about the squad, Jitesh Sharma has been picked as the designated wicketkeeper-batter whereas Shreyas Iyer is set to join the team for the last two T20Is as vice-captain.
Suryakumar Yadav will be leading the side in the absence of Hardik Pandya with senior players like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, and Ravindra Jadeja also missing.
Australia, who recently beat India in the final to lift their sixth World Cup title will be led by Matthew Wade in the squad that features the lie of Tanveer Sangha, Nathan Ellis, and Spencer Johnson.
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India Squad: Suryakumar Yadav (Captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad (vice-captain), Ishan Kishan, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Shivam Dubey, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar