Gujarat's star all-rounder expresses his disappointment at not getting a call-up for the national team

The BCCI on Wednesday announced the 17-member squad for the two-match T20 series against Ireland starting on 26^th June. The senior players of the team are rested for the series as they prepare for the fifth test match against England starting 1^st July. Hardik Pandya has been named the ‘captain’ of the squad and Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been named the ‘vice-captain’.

While Rahul Tripathi finally got his much-awaited Indian team call-up, there was another Rahul who was eagerly waiting with his fingers crossed for the squad announcement. Rahul Tewatia, the finisher from the Gujarat team who rose through the ranks with his swashbuckling stroke-play against Sheldon Cottrell in 2020, was left disappointed after he didn’t find his name in the squad.

Tewatia took to Twitter to express his disappointment. The southpaw’s tweet read ‘Expectation hurts’ followed by two sad emojis. The left-handed batsman was previously selected for the T20 series against England in 2021 but couldn’t make it to the eleven owing to his fitness issues.

Expectations hurts 😒😒

— Rahul Tewatia (@rahultewatia02) June 15, 2022

While Tewatia’s expectations may be hurting him at the moment but he has surpassed all expectations of his fans with his knack for finishing tight games one after the other. The 2022 season was highly successful for the allrounder where he played 16 games for his franchise scoring 217 runs at an average of 31 and a strike rate of 147.62.

Within a short span of time Tewatia has become the go-to ‘finisher’ for his respective teams. And he’s waiting to replicate the same performances for the national side whenever he gets an opportunity.

India squad for IRE series: Hardik Pandya (C), Bhuvneshwar Kumar (VC), Ishan Kishan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sanju Samson, Suryakumar Yadav, Venkatesh Iyer, Deepak Hooda, Rahul Tripathi, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, R Bishnoi, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik

The first T20I between India and Ireland takes place on June 26 at the Malahide Cricket Club in Ireland.