"There is no information as to why he is not in the scene" - R Ashwin's massive remark on star opener's exclusion from AUS vs IND 2025 T20Is

Indian spin legend Ravichandran Ashwin remarked on star opener Ruturaj Gaikwad's exclusion from the T20I series against Australia. The Chennai Super Kings (CSK) batter has been named in the India A squad for the ODI series against South Africa A.

Gaikwad has played a T20I in 2024 against Zimbabwe. In that series, he scored 133 runs from three innings at an average of 66.50 and a strike-rate of 158.33 with a half-century. However, he has been out of the mix ever since.

Ashwin reflected that there has been no solid reasoning for Gaikwad's exclusion. He reckoned that players would be left hanging if there was no proper communication. The veteran hoped that there had been some communication and that the CSK star would be considered going forward.

"We do not need to talk about Ruturaj Gaikwad's class. He's got all the shots in the book. The only thing is there is no information as to why he is not in the scene after his last T20 series. When he played the last T20 the coach was different, the captain was different. The issue is if there is no communication with such players they will largely be left in the dark. I really hope he is being communicated to. He is batting brilliantly in red ball as well. I hope they consider him for a middle-order role," he said on his YouTube channel.

At the moment, Abhishek Sharma and Shubman Gill are India's T20I openers. Given the competition, even Yashavi Jaiswal has been unable to make it into the T20I side. Ashwin reckoned that Jaiswal and Gaikwad would also have fit in as an opening pair with the same combination in another team. He reflected that Gaikwad's struggles may be due to the stiff competition, and that being an opener in India in T20I at the moment could be difficult.

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Ashwin's take on Modern-day T20 batting and competition for opening slots

Ravichandran Ashwin also reflected on how an opening batter has to maintain a strike-rate of 145 or more in the modern-day T20 game. He bluntly opined that betters with lesser strike-rates would not be included for the position.

"In modern-day T20 cricket, you will not be selected as an opener if you come with a strike-rate of less than 145. I am very sorry to say. You like players like Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill, all these players who are setting it up for you. You could win the T20 World Cup because how Virat played in the final against South Africa. But when you have players like these on one side, you need to fight on the other side. That's why Rohit took it upon himself," he said.

As far as the opening slots were concerned, Ashwin reckoned that Abhishek and Jaiswal were competing for one slot. For the other, he expressed that the competition was between the likes of Gill, Gaikwad, Sanju Samson, and included Sai Sudharsan in the mix as well.

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Edited by Rishab Vm