Credit: X
The former Indian cricketer, S Badrinath, delivered a scathing rant in an exclusive interview, wanting justice for Ruturaj Gaikwad, who was dropped from the national team squad for the Sri Lanka tour. The 43-year-old shared the detailed stats of Ruturaj Gaikwad in the T20I format before claiming the need for a relationship with a Bollywood actress among other things to get picked in the Indian cricket team.
For the upcoming three-match series in both ODI and T20I formats in Sri Lanka, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) picked the squads recently. But in a big surprise, Ruturaj Gaikwad was omitted from the T20I squad after his impressive performances in the format in the past year, including a fifty on the recently concluded tour to Zimbabwe.
Need relationship with Bollywood actress: S Badrinath on Ruturaj Gaikwad
While Ruturaj Gaikwad is yet to address the situation, S Badrinath shared a video on his official X account, pleading the case for the right-handed batter to be picked in the T20I format. He remarked, as per NDTV Sports, “Sometimes it seems like you need a bad guy image when the likes of Rinku Singh, Ruturaj Gaikwad and others are not selected for the Indian team. It seems that you need to be in a relationship with some Bollywood actresses, have a good media manager, and have body tattoos.”
Here is the clip of S Badrinath's scathing rant after Ruturaj Gaikwad missed out on the Sri Lanka tour:
Notably, S Badrinath, who hails from Tamil Nadu, played IPL cricket for Chennai Super Kings, a team which Ruturaj Gaikwad captains now.
Moreover, apart from Ruturaj Gaikwad, there were a few more surprise omissions from the Indian cricket team picked for the three-match T20I series against Sri Lanka. The likes of Abhishek Sharma, Avesh Khan, and Mukesh Kumar were also left out despite playing a major role in India’s 4-1 win in the five-match T20I series against Zimbabwe earlier this month.
