‘Lot of good players in India’ – Ajit Agarkar explains Rajat Patidar’s exclusion from India’s T20I squad

BCCI Chairman of Selectors Ajit Agarkar has spoken on the omission of Rajat Patidar in the T20I squad as the committee announced the squads for the series against Ireland and England, as well as the 2026 Asian Games.

Patidar captained the Royal Challengers Bengaluru to the title in 2025 and followed it up with a successful defence in 2026. He is coming off a fantastic season with the bat, scoring 501 runs at a strike rate of 192.69. The 33-year-old showed absolute dominance in a middle-order enforcer role at number 4. With the poor form of outgoing skipper Suryakumar Yadav, who plays in that position, calls for Patidar’s inclusion into the Indian team were significantly strong from fans and experts alike. 

Agarkar stated the unfortunate nature of Patidar’s exclusion, but added that it is always a feature of similar squad selections. The former speedster further stated that he is satisfied with the squad they have picked and praised the wide talent pool in the country.

“We discussed a host of players. We think these 15 are deserving. Lot of good players in India. Plenty who are good enough to walk into the team, but the guys playing are doing as well as they can. We think we’ve picked good squads. Always will have players missing out, but we’ve picked a good squad, happy with this one,” Agarkar said, speaking in the press conference.

With the committee moving on from former skipper Suryakumar, Shreyas Iyer has been named as the new captain of the T20I side. The committee made the call to move on from the former, keeping in mind the next two-year cycle, which culminates with the 2028 T20 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, where the Men in Blue enter as the defending champions. 

The squad also sees the inclusion of 15-year-old starboy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who becomes the youngest player to be picked for India.

India T20I squad for Ireland and England series:

Shreyas Iyer (C), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (WK), Ishan Kishan (WK), Shivam Dube, Tilak Varma (VC), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Varun Chakravarthy, Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh, Prince Yadav, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Harshit Rana, Ravi Bishnoi