Another huge series defeat loading for India!! With the kind of consistency Ruturaj is showing, he cant be anywhere near the Indian LOI side for quite sometime, until the seniors retire (and even then, he'll have huge competition from the more aggressive batters). He can easily be outgunned by the likes of Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, Yashashwi Jaiswal, etc (apart from the likes of KL Rahul and Ishan Kishan).
On the contrary, DK looked pretty good and gave the total some respectability. He needs to play more this series and be given the chance to stake a serious claim for that WC spot.
Hardik is not captaining the team here. How is #1 relevant? I too had those thoughts appear fleetingly in my mind during the IPL, but I also was impressed mostly with Hardik the captain from that IPL more than Hardik the batsman (which is the role he's performing in this current series).
On #2, its going to be tougher and tougher to not have IPL influence international selection. The tournament has a huge shadow over world cricket right now. Even other countries often pick players for their national teams based on IPL/their own franchise league performances. We just have to accept the new reality that franchise leagues will feed into the national LOI teams for the nearly 'distant' future.
