BCCI Official reveals that Rahul Dravid decided to drop Shikhar Dhawan ahead of the South Africa series

There were a lot of sources accomplishing that Shikhar Dhawan might return to the Indian team for the upcoming T20I series against South Africa. He has looked in good form in this edition of the Indian Premier League and has aggregated around 500 runs after getting featured in all games for Delhi Capitals.

Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli rested for this series, as they have to fly for England at the end of June for the rescheduled Test match and the ODIs and T20Is as well.

Keeping that in mind, most of the fans thought Shikhar Dhawan would be added to the squad and would open the innings with the Karnataka batter, KL Rahul.

In addition to that, some of the reports also suggested that Shikhar Dhawan might lead the Indian side in the upcoming series against the Proteas. But unfortunately, the left-handed batter didn't get a place in the squad and had to wait to make his comeback in Indian colours. 

A tough call was taken by the head coach Rahul Dravid:

According to the recent reports from InsideSport.IN, Rahul Dravid was the man who dropped Shikhar Dhawan ahead of the T20I series against South Africa.

The reports also suggested that Rahul Dravid informed Shikhar Dhawan before getting into the interaction with the selectors on Sunday. "Shikhar has been a great servant of Indian cricket for over a decade.

But in T20s, you have to give chances to youngsters who have been doing well. Rahul had to make the tough call and we all agreed. Shikhar was informed by Rahul before the team was announced on Sunday," a senior BCCI Official told InsideSport.IN.

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"The plan has been simple. When you have Ruturaj, Ishan, KL besides Sanju amongst many other top-order batter, it gets difficult. Rahul has a clear idea of what he wants.

Of course, we all have respect for Shikhar and that is why he made a call to inform him that, he will not be in T20 plans anymore," the source added.