&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "'We expected a little bit more..': Ajit Agarkar opens on THIS player's exclusion from Windies Test squad")
India on Thursday (September 25) announced the 15-member squad for the two-match home Test series against West Indies. This will be India's second Test series of the WTC 2025-27 after previously drawing the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy in England 2-2. The squad saw major changes as veteran Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja has been named as the new vice-captain in place of Rishabh Pant, who is still recovering from a toe injury he picked up during the England tour. However, the biggest talking point was the exclusion of Karun Nair. After returning to the Test side earlier this year following an eight-year gap, Nair has now been dropped again.
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Karun Nair out once again
BCCI's chief selector, Ajit Agarkar, shared the reason behind the decision. Nair played four Tests during the England tour and scored 205 runs at an average of 25.62. He also hit a half-century in the final Test of the series, which India won by just six runs. Speaking about the call to drop him, Agarkar was quoted as saying to ANI, “I mean obviously, frankly, we expected a little bit more from him, he has played four Tests. We have spoken about one innings. As the way it is, I mean, we feel Padikkal (Devdutt) offers a little bit more at this point, and I wish we could have given everyone 15 or 20 Tests. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way.”
Agarkar supported the selection of Devdutt Padikkal, who has been showing good form lately. “He has been in the Test squad. I mean, he was in the Test squad in Australia. Played in Dharamsala against England, got a 50 there. He's shown some decent form with India A. Yeah, frankly, we expected a bit more from Karun on the England trip,” he added.
Karun Nair, who once scored a memorable triple century in Test cricket, once again finds himself out of the squad as selectors continue to back younger players like Padikkal for the middle-order. India’s first Test against West Indies will begin on October 2 in Ahmedabad.
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India's squad for West Indies Test series
Squad: Shubman Gill (captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Devdutt Padikkal, Dhruv Jurel, Ravindra Jadeja (vice-captain), Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Axar Patel, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Kuldeep Yadav and N Jagadeesan.
