“A massive blunder from the selection committee” – Basit Ali feels absence of two batters cost India ODI series against Sri Lanka

Former Pakistan cricketer Basit Ali feels the Ajit Agarkar-led selection panel made a massive blunder in ignoring Yashasvi Jaiswal and Suryakumar Yadav in the ODI series against Sri Lanka. India lost an ODI series against the Island country after a long gap of 27 years after suffering losses in the second and third ODI by 32 and 110 runs respectively.

Meanwhile, Suryakumar Yadav recently scored 92 runs in three T20Is against Sri Lanka to lead from the front and was awarded Player of the Series. On the other hand, Yashasvi Jaiswal scored 80 runs in three matches but the duo was not picked for Sri Lanka ODIs.

Jaiswal also scored 141 runs in three T20Is against Zimbabwe at an average of 70.50 and a strike rate of 165.88 after the T20 World Cup triumph. 

Meanwhile, barring Rohit Sharma, none of the Indian batters could perform consistently in three ODIs against the hosts. Rohit scored 157 runs in three matches but none of the other Indian batters could amass more than 80 runs in the series.

Speaking on his YouTube Channel, Basit Ali said, “This series has shown that Yashasvi Jaiswal is a far better player than Shubman Gill. It was a massive blunder from the selection committee to not pick Yashasvi Jaiswal and Suryakumar Yadav.”

Ali feels Kohli looked out of form as he could only score 58 runs in the series but the other batters also failed miserably as they were looking to hit good-looking shots and find boundaries.

“Yes, Virat Kohli looked out of form, but what were the others doing? They were just looking to hit good-looking shots and fours. Rishabh Pant too hit a four off the first ball. This is not cricket.”

India will next host Bangladesh for two Test matches and three T20Is.