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New Delhi: Team India batter Karun Nair has been dropped from the Test squad for the upcoming two-match Test series against the West Indies, which is set to begin from October 2. Nair recently returned to the Test team after a gap of more than 3,000 days, and played four of the five Test matches against England. He managed to score just 205 runs, with a single half-century.
Agarkar said that the BCCI selectors expected a stronger contribution from Nair and saw greater value in the form shown by Devdutt Padikkal. He batted at No.3 and No.6 in the five-match Test series against England, finishing with an average of 25.62.
Despite scoring a fifty in the last Test, selectors picked Padikkal in his place, who recently impressed with a hundred in an unofficial Test for India A against Australia A. Agarkar said that Padikkal has been part of the Test squad and has scored runs consistently with India A.
In an interview with The Times of India, Karun Nair said that he expected to get selected for the Test series against the West Indies.
"Yes, I did expect the selection. I don't know what to say. No words. I don't have many comments to make. It's very difficult for me to answer," Nair told the Times of India.
Nair further added that he scored a fifty when no one else managed to do that in the first innings, and thought that he had contributed to the team, especially in the last game that India won.
Chief selector Ajit Agarkar, explaining the decision to drop Nair, said that they expected a little more from him. "He played four Tests, and you spoke about one innings. That's the way it is. We feel Padikkal offers a little more at this point. Wish we could give everyone 15-20 Tests," Agarkar added.
India squad for West Indies Test series
Shubman Gill (C), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Devdutt Padikkal, Dhruv Jurel (WK), Ravindra Jadeja (VC), Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Axar Patel, Nitish Kumar Reddy, N. Jagadeesan (WK), Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Kuldeep Yadav.
