The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) selection committee announced the India squad for the upcoming Sri Lanka white-ball series. India is scheduled to play 3 T20Is and 3 ODIs in July with the team being captained by Shikhar Dhawan.
The selectors included six uncapped players, five of them receiving their maiden call-ups. Many other players had hopes of getting an India call-up on basis of their domestic performance and one of those was Puducherry’s Sheldon Jackson.
Jackson has been a consistent performer in the domestic circuit, scoring over 800 runs in the last two Ranji Trophy seasons. With 5,634 runs in 76 First-Class matches at an average of 49.22, Jackson is among the top players in the Indian domestic circuit. Yet, the elusive India call-up has been evading him.
With the majority of first-choice Indian players on the tour of England, 34-year-old Jackson had high hopes of getting his maiden India call-up. The former Saurashtra batsman-keeper shared a broken heart emoji on Twitter after being overlooked for the Sri Lanka tour.
“I’m 34. If I’m performing well, better than a 22-23-year-old, where is it written in the laws of the game that you’re not eligible to get picked for the national team? Who are those people judging you, and on ability are they judging you? By Ranji score? Fitness?
If you’re scoring 800-900 runs consistently for two-three seasons, it means you have to be fit. Or you won’t be able to sustain it. So how can you be judged? Many a times I hear that ‘he’s above 30’. Where is it written that you can’t be picked? And who are these people who are taking away your right from you?" Jackson had told CricketNext while lashing out at selectors.
However, it seems, Jackson still has hopes of breaking into the Indian team and posted a clip of himself getting throw downs in the nets. He captioned the post, “The sun will rise, I will try again.”
