Need Bad Guy Image, Tattoos…: Badrinath Takes Dig At Selectors For Dropping Ruturaj Gaikwad

Ruturaj Gaikwad finished as the second-leading run scorer in IPL 2024 and scored 133 runs with an average of 66.50 against Zimbabwe in the recently concluded T20I series. But despite that, he was dropped from the Indian team for the upcoming white-ball tour of Sri Lanka. The 27-year-old right-handed batter from Maharashtra, who captains the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL, wasn’t picked in both the ODI and T20I teams.

The decision to drop Gaikwad from the Indian team hasn’t gone down well with former India batter Subramaniam Badrinath, who, in a video uploaded from his social media platforms on Saturday (July 20), said that cricketers may require more than just exceptional performances to secure a place in the Indian team.

He also added that having relationships with certain Bollywood actresses and sporting tattoos might be necessary for players to be consistently chosen for the squad.

“Sometimes it seems like you need a bad guy image when the likes of Rinku Singh, Ruturaj Gaikwad, and others are not selected for the Indian team. It seems that you need to be in a relationship with some Bollywood actresses, have a good media manager, and have body tattoos,” Badrinath said.

Ruturaj, who has played six ODIs and 23 T20Is for India so far, scored 7, 77*, and 49 runs in the first three T20Is against Zimbabwe. He didn’t get a chance to bat in the fourth T20I and was dropped from the playing XI for the fifth match.

Apart from Ruturaj, Abhishek Sharma, who scored a century in just 46 balls during the 2nd T20I against Zimbabwe, and Mukesh Kumar, who picked up eight wickets in three India-Zimbabwe T20Is, were also ignored for the upcoming three-match T20I series between India and Sri Lanka.

Surya to lead in T20Is

After Rohit Sharma’s retirement from T20Is, star middle-order batter Suryakumar Yadav was named as the Indian captain for the Sri Lanka series, which starts on July 27 in Pallekele. The 33-year-old Mumbai-based cricketer was preferred over Hardik Pandya for the top job.

Surya has won five out of seven T20Is played so far as Indian captain after making his leadership debut during a five-match series between India and Australia in November–December 2023.