Sourav Ganguly Surprised By Ajinkya Rahane's Absence From The Limited-Overs Squads Against England

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Tuesday announced the squads for the one-off Test against Afghanistan, the Twenty 20 International series against Ireland and the limited-overs series versus England. While Ajinkya Rahane has been given the responsibility to lead the Test side, he couldn't find a place in ODI and T20I squads. The ODI team for the England series saw Shreyas Iyer, Ambati Rayudu and Siddharth Kaul coming in but Rahane's omission has left everyone surprised, including former India captain Sourav Ganguly. "Ajinkya Rahane has missed out on limited-overs squad. A harsh decision," Ganguly was quoted as saying by India Today.

"I would still pick Ajinkya Rahane ahead of Ambati Rayudu. Ajinkya Rahane is a far superior player in England where the ball is going to move. He has got a good record in England," Ganguly added.

Rayudu is having a stellar Indian Premier League (IPL) season. The right-hander scored 423 runs in 10 matches at a healthy average of 42.30 and strike rate of 151.61.

Rahane, who has scored 2962 runs in 90 ODI matches at an average of 35.26, hasn't had a good run in ODIs off late. He had a mediocre ODI series in South Africa where he scored 140 runs in 6 matches with a highest score of 79 not out.

But looking at his statistics in the last one year, one would say that Ganguly is right in his analysis. The 29-year-old has accumulated 725 runs in the last one-year in 17 ODI matches with an average of 48.33 that includes a century too against the West Indies, where he was presented with the Man of the Match award.

In the last one-year, Rahane scored 244 runs in five matches against Australia, 140 in six matches versus South Africa, five in a single match with Sri Lanka and 336 runs in five matches played with the West Indies.

Rahane has also been in and out of the Indian team which actually has taken a big hit to his confidence. While the Indian captain Virat Kohli has played 29 matches in the last one-year, Rahane has only featured in 17 matches.

India team for T20I series vs Ireland: Virat Kohli (capt), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Suresh Raina, Manish Pandey, MS Dhoni (wk), Dinesh Karthik, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Siddharth Kaul, Umesh Yadav.

India team for T20I series against England: Virat Kohli (capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Suresh Raina, Manish Pandey, MS Dhoni (wk), Dinesh Karthik, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Siddharth Kaul, Umesh Yadav.

India team for ODI series against England: Virat Kohli (capt), Shikhar Dhawan , Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni (wk), Dinesh Karthik, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Siddharth Kaul, Umesh Yadav.