KKR batter's 'bad days…' post immediately after being left out of India's T20I squad against West Indies creates ripples

India's squad for the five-match T20Is against West Indies starting on August 3 was pretty much on expected lines. It was a youngster-heavy line-up – with still no place for Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma – featuring maiden India call-up for Tilak Varma and rewarding Yashasvi Jaiswal with a T20I cap. Jaiswal and Varma were rewarded for a stellar show in the IPL 2023, and with an eye on next year's World Cup, the newly appointed BCCI Chairman of selectors, Ajit Agarkar laid down the 15 names he feels are best suited to take Indian cricket forward under Hardik Pandya.

Rinku Singh (L) and Nitish Rana during an IPL match in May. (IPL)

But while there were two new introductions, several names were dropped. In fact, as many as six players were dropped from the T20I squad that was picked for the New Zealand series at home which include Ruturaj Gaikwad, Washington Sundar, Prithvi Shaw, Rahul Tripathi, Jitesh Sharma and Deepak Hooda, although it is likely that some of these names might feature in the squad that tours Ireland. There is only a week-long gap between the end of the WI T20Is and the start of the Ireland and the ones snubbed from the tour of the Caribbean are expected to make the cut.

Also Read: Why Ruturaj Gaikwad, Rinku Singh and Jitesh Sharma were not selected in India T20I squad for West Indies tour

However, another out of favour player whose name did not feature among the 15 was KKR's stand-in captain Nitish Rana. Both Rana and his teammate Rinku Singh were tipped to break into the squad but neither could. On Thursday, tweets on Rinku sharing an Insta story on his disappointment started doing the rounds, but it couldn't be verified. Rana on the other hand though did not keep silent and posted a rather cryptic tweet shortly after the team was announced. "Bad days build better days," said the tweet as fans replied to him with motivating quotes and 'never-give-up' ideologies.

Rana has played one ODI and three T20Is for India, the latter dating back to his debut series against Sri Lanka in July of 2021. Rana has since done reasonably well emerging as the fourth-highest scorer in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2022-23 with a tally of 317 runs from 8 games at an average of 45.28 including a century and a fifty each. He carried the form to IPL 2023 as he captained KKR in place of the injured Shreyas Iyer and led from the front with 413 runs including three half-centuries, his highest ever season tally in the IPL.