Former Indian cricketer Sadagoppan Ramesh believes Ruturaj Gaikwad should have been included in place of Nitish Kumar Reddy for the ongoing ODI series against New Zealand. Gaikwad had scored a brilliant 105 in his last innings for India in the second ODI against South Africa.
However, he was left out of the squad for the New Zealand series due to the return of Shreyas Iyer and Shubman Gill. Despite Washington Sundar suffering an injury in the opening ODI, India opted to replace him with batting all-rounder Ayush Badoni for the remainder of the series.
Ramesh believes that India's batting collapses in both ODIs against New Zealand have been largely overlooked. In the opening ODI, despite posting 234/2, India slumped to 242/5, with KL Rahul rescuing the innings with an unbeaten 29 off 21 balls to seal the win. A similar collapse occurred in the second ODI, as the hosts fell from 99/1 to 118/4 before Rahul once again steadied the ship with an unbeaten 112 off 92 balls.
