29

Jul

About Silence And Accountability

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New Delhi I Wednesday I July 29, 2026

India had an unenviable record in white ball cricket – One day World Cup finalists in 2023; World T20 Champions in 2024; one day Champions Cup winders in 2025; T20 World Cup champions in 2026. Throw in the Asia Cup win in 2023.
Undoubted kings of white ball cricket!
Then disaster stuck – humbled 2-0 by lowly placed Ireland in T20; battered 4-0 by England in T20 and then defeated 2-1 in One dayers again by England.
In consonance with the times, there is silence by the BCCI leadership and none of those who are at the helm of the selections – the selectors and head coach – take responsibility!!!
What changed so drastically to cause this humiliation?
Quite decidedly the conditions – all our victories above were either on flat sub continental conditions or once in USA/West Indies vastly different from what we encountered in Ireland and England.
Did we not know that conditions would be entirely different – more pace friendly, swing and seam, longer boundaries? Were our selection committee or head coach unfamiliar with these conditions?
They were not! How did then they forget to factor this into the selections?
Arrogance – with the kind of record we had in recent years, they thought any team could walk over its opponents.
Miscalculation – giving priority to statistics compiled on flat tracks!
As has been pointed out in this column earlier, we were in England in 2025 albeit for Test cricket but that tests ability to bat in English conditions better than any other form.
Who were the highest scorers then?
•    Shubman Gill: 754 runs in 10 innings with an average of 75.40.
•    KL Rahul: 532 runs in 10 innings with an average of 53.20.
•    Ravindra Jadeja: 516 runs in 10 innings with an average of 86.00.
•    Rishabh Pant: 479 runs in 7 innings with an average of 68.43.
•    Yashasvi Jaiswal: 411 runs in 10 innings with an average of 41.10
Each one of them has an enviable T20 record too and two of them, Gill and Rahul, were among top 10 Indian rungetters in IPL 2026 if that was a yardstick. We are not even considering Ruturaj Gaikwad who scored a hindered in one dayer or Sai Sudarshan who stacked up runs in IPL 2026 and had experience of English conditions too.
Yet none of them figured in the squad for T20.
Who have been our best white ball pace bowlers in recent times – without doubt Bumrah, Shami, Siraj and Arshdeep? Yet the first 3 did not figure in the squad with far better record in England than those who were taken. There was another candidate based on IPL 2026 performance well suited to English conditions – Bhuvaneswar Kumar! 
But we are unclear on whether performance or age counts? 
If Bumrah was to be rested, should we not have gone for another seasoned campaigner in English conditions? In the absence of Bumrah, we paid the price in the final one dayer as English batsmen pilloried our inexperienced pacers.
Not to mention the change in captaincy!
Whoever discards a World Cup wining captain – or a Champions Trophy winning captain? Is that arrogance that we have such riches anyone can lead the side to win – even someone who only 3 months earlier was not even in the 15 member squad in Indian conditions? Does change in captain not affect the team – or the musical chairs being played in vice captaincy? From Gill to Pant to Axar to Tilak to Shreyas – who are we grooming?
We manage workload of cricketers who merrily play 14 IPL matches on the trot in a 40 day period – but we rest them from international cricket.
This column has relentlessly highlighted lack of logic and consistency in selections and the results in England/Ireland are proof how muddled selections brought Indian cricket down. 
Now let us look at the choices made from the chosen squad during the tour!
We pick Sooryavanshi prematurely on the back of his stupendous run in the IPL – but do not blood him in Ireland against a weaker opposition and when a senior fails, we throw him in front of England’s mightier pace. And then after 3 failed innings we discard him to bring back the discarded senior again. Is this logical, sensible thinking by any yardstick?
We play 3 spinners in England to begin with – and then end up playing just one in the final game leaving out the most likely wicket taker in middle overs, Kuldeep Yadav, without a game right through.
We send in Ishan Kishna ahead of more seasoned campaigners like Iyer and Rahul starving them of reasonable number of overs towards the end.
We are unable to decide why Sundar has been picked – as a batter who can occasionally bowl or as an allrounder who would bat and bowl his full quota of 4 overs or a frontline spin bowler?
In our fancy for left-right combination, we send Rana to bat ahead of Axar Patel!
Who was taking these quixotic decisions on tour? The head coach or the captain or both?
Such a disaster as hit India calls for BCCI leadership to make a statement – but there is none.
It calls for a comprehensive review by an independent group of experts covering the selections as well as the tactics used during the tour – there is none.
It calls for someone to own up at least moral responsibility for the debacle – there is none.
Do we have to wait for a cricket equivalent of Jantar Mantar?

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