Ajinkya Rahane to Cheteshwar Pujara: Five Players Whose India Careers Are All But Over

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The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Thursday announced India Test, ODI and T20I squads for the tour of South Africa. Several youngsters have been included in all the three squads as Indian cricket prepares themselves for a major transition post the World Cup 2023.

The likes of Rinku Singh and Tilak Varma found themselves in the T20I as well as the ODI squad. Ruturaj Gaikwad and Shreyas Iyer find themselves in all the three teams, while 21-year-old Yashasvi Jaiswal has got a place in the Test and T20I squad.

The selectors have made it crystal clear that the next crop of Indian superstars will be preferred now. This also means that a handful of great servants of India cricket might never get the opportunity to represent the country again.

Ajinkya Rahane: The former India vice-captain was India's best batter in the World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia. He scored a gutsy 89 and 46-run knock in his comeback match after a gap of almost 18 months. The performance helped in retaining his place for the West Indies Tests but he could register scores of 3 and 8 only in the two innings he got to bat.

Rahane has been dropped once again and replaced by Shreyas Iyer, the batter whose injury facilitated comeback in the WTC final. We might just have seen the last of Rahane who has scored 5077 runs in 85 Test matches for India.

Cheteshwar Pujara: One of India's most celebrated number three batter, Cheteshwar Pujara served India cricket with utmost grit and passion. His ability to hang around and battle in the toughest conditions made him the 'second wall' of India after Rahul Dravid.

Pujara failed to score in the WTC final and was dropped immediately before the West Indies tour. He was dropped back in 2022 as well but made a comeback on the back of stunning performances in county cricket. But the Saurashtra batter might never get to play for India again. Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer are in the race to take the coveted number three spot.

Pujara played 103 Test matches for India and scored 7195 runs at an average of 43.60. He has hit 19 hundreds and 35 Test fifties for India.

Umesh Yadav: The Vidarbha pacer is actively playing domestic cricket in the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2023. But playing for India again looks like a distance dream for the 36-year-old.

The right-arm fast bowler for the longest time remained India's third and fourth pacer. He last played in the WTC final against Australia. He managed to pick two wickets in the match. Umesh Yadav was dropped for the West Indies Tests and now has been ignored for the two-Test series in South Africa.

Ignoring him for a Test series in pace-friendly South Africa makes it clear that the selectors have moved ahead of the Nagpur-born cricketer.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar: The 33-year-old Uttar Pradesh pacer has been mighty impressive in the ongoing domestic season. However, the selectors have still opted to ignore him for all the three formats.

Bhuvneshwar last played a Test match for India in 2018, and his last ODI appearance was back in January 2022. A T20I match against New Zealand in November 2022 was the last appearance of Bhuvneshwar for India.

The arrival of Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan, Prasidh Krishna and Mukesh Kumar has cut the comeback path of the veteran cricketer who has represented India in 21 Test, 121 ODIs and 87 T20Is.

Jaydev Unadkat: The Saurashtra captain made his Test comeback after 12 years for the tour of Bangladesh in December 2022. He played a Test match there and two more red-ball games on the West Indies tour. The 32-year-old also made his first ODI appearance for India after 2013 on the West Indies tour.

But the left-arm pacer has been dropped again. A similar lack of pace like Bhuvneshwar Kumar could be one of the reasons for Unadkat's exclusion. Another comeback looks highly unlikely for Unadkat.