India on Sunday announced their squad for the upcoming three-match ODI series against South Africa. The series that kicks off in Lucknow on October 6 will see Shikhar Dhawan lead the Indian side with Shreyas Iyer being his deputy. While many other old faces were named in the team for the series against the Proteas, the 16-member squad also included two new faces -- right-handed batter Rajat Patidar and right-arm pacer Mukesh Kumar. India's wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik expressed his excitement on the selection of the two players while he also named two domestic players -- Sarfaraz Khan and Baba Indrajith, who he feels are in line to make it to India's Test squad.
"So happy to see Rajat patidar there , so deserves this selection
Well done to Mukesh Kumar too (sic)," wrote Karthik.
"Now Sarfaraz Khan and Indrajith baba into the test scheme of things . Can't ignore such brilliant performers and performances. They've just been phenomenal (sic)," Karthik added.
It is worth noting that Sarfaraz Khan topped the batters' chart in 2021-22 Ranji Trophy with 982 runs to his name across 6 matches at an average of 122.75. His highest score in the edition was 275. He then scored a 127 not out in the Duleep Trophy final and carried his form into the Irani Trophy and hit 138 runs in Rest of India's first innings against Saurashtra. These all came after Sarfaraz had already scored 928 runs across 6 matches in the 2019-20 Ranji Trophy.
Talking about Baba Indrajit, the right-handed batter had scored 118 in the Duleep Trophy final this season. Overall, he has played 58 First-Class matches and scored 3987 runs at an average of 53.16. He has scored 13 centuries and 20 fifties in the format, while his highest score is 200.