On Thursday, the BCCI announced the much-anticipated India white-ball squads for the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka, which will mark the beginning of Gautam Gambhir's tenure as the side's head coach. While Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli returned to the ODI format for the tour, the biggest story was the appointment of Suryakumar Yadav as the new T20I skipper.

While there were maiden call-ups for a few, another major point of interest was the absence of Ruturaj Gaikwad and Abhishek Sharma from the T20I squad, despite their strong performances in the series against Zimbabwe earlier this month. Additionally, Rinku Singh continues to wait for an ODI call-up, despite strong calls for him to be included in the fifty-over setup.

As Team India prepares to travel to the island nation for three T20Is and as many ODIs, former Indian batter Subramaniam Badrinath has made a rather controversial remark over the snub of Gaikwad and Rinku in the two formats. While Gaikwad hasn't been included in any of the two squads, Rinku has retained his place in the T20I team.

While speaking on Cric Debate With Badri, a remark from him has gone viral on social media platforms, which seems to suggest that cricketers might require more than just performances to ensure a place in the Indian squad. The statement from Badrinath – originally in Tamil – has been translated by many on the social media platform X, and the former India batter has since been quoted by MyKhel Tamil too.

“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,” Badrinath said in the video clip.

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While Badrinath didn't take names, it is evident that the former Chennai Super Kings star is clearly frustrated with the snub of the two players he mentioned. Ruturaj Gaikwad had scores of 7, 77, and 49 in three innings against Zimbabwe and was rested for the final T20I of the series, as India had already won the series.

Rinku, meanwhile, has continued to produce exemplary performances in the shortest format, and played crucial cameos in the Zimbabwe T20Is, too.

Read Also: Need bad guy image, tattoos, relationship with actresses': Badrinath's outrageous claim after Ruturaj Gaikwad's snu