27

Jun

If INCONSISTENCY WAS NOT ENOUGH SELECTORS NOW SHOW  LACK OF TRANSPARENCY

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New Delhi I Saturday I June 27, 2026

The selectors have announced the Indian cricket team for the one day series in England as follows:
Shubman Gill (captain), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Nitish Kumar Reddy (now out due to injury and replaced by Suryansh Shedge), Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Gurnoor Brar.
What it conveys is what has been on display all the time – inconsistency! But it adds another trait – of lack of transparency!!
Is this team based on one day performances? And logic?
Does not look like.
It leaves out Siraj who only a couple of weeks ago was among their first choice for Afghanistan series and then suddenly rested to bring in Prasidh Krishna – now he is not even in the 15 member squad, Ravindra Jadeja was also rested one would assume to give younger spinners a chance – a perfectly legitimate objective. But now Jadeja is not in the team with no explanation what rules him out. Given that he had an outstanding series in England in 2025, he would have been an asset.
It would be understandable that the Afghan series is used to try some youngsters by resting some main players. But the younger players, even if they do well, should make way for the established players.
Virat Kohli was unavailable due to fitness concerns – Bumrah was rested. So, one would assume, were Axar Patel and Siraj.
Such players should automatically return for the full squad as is needed now in England.
This logic is followed in bringing Axar back in place of Harsh Dubey but not in case of Siraj where Brar, Prasidh and Rana have taken precedence over him with no reason advanced. That too when English conditions need swing or seam bowlers more than those who hit the deck like Prasidh.
And what about Hardik Pandya? Is he injured and therefore ruled out? Or being rested to manage his work load? Or dropped?
Similarly its not clear why Shami is being ignored studiously – has he been dropped from contention for ever due to age! 
if age is not an issue for Rohit and Virat then why should it be an issue for Shami or even Bhuvaneswar Kumar especially in English conditions which suit them?
There are as many batter candidates to replace Rohit and Virat as there are pacers to replace veterans like Shami.
If younger players have to be promoted with an eye on World Cup in 2027, it should apply to all rather than selectively to a few.
We also need to put a protocol in place to provide a graceful exit to some of our stars as they age and even if they are unable to make a decision to retire, the BCCI should have a system in place to have a candid conversation with the player concerned, let him know when the selectors decide to move on from him and go for a younger player and provide an opportunity to the star for a well deserved farewell. 
This should be accompanied by a clear statement of intent on age – either that age is no bar if you perform or that after a certain age, BCCI would like to move on to younger players and rule established players out.
Neither is being demonstrated today and in fact there are confusing signals being sent.
We have a number of stars in that category – Rohit, Virat, Jadeja, Shami…
Let us now consider the team selected.
What is the likely composition of the final 11 in England – two openers, Rohit and Gill, 3 middle order batters - Virat, Shreyas, and Rahul (wk), one pace all rounder - Nitish, two spinners - Axar, and Yadav, and 3 pacers – Bumrah, Arshdeep and Prasidh.
To fill in the rest of the spots, what do we need – one keeper, Ishan, one spinner – Sundar, one pacer Rana and one spare batter or opener which is missing.
We are perhaps carrying one pacer extra and are one back up batter short - the players who have lost out are Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ruturaj Gaikwad both of who have scored hundreds in their last one day outings and are unfortunate to miss out on a berth!
In English conditions having a pace all rounder to back up 5 specialist bowlers is a bonus – but with young Suryansh being included in place of injured Nitish, one wonders if that would be the case. Would it have been more prudent to carry Shivam Dube instead who is far more seasoned, even if in T 20 is a question that comes to mind.
If we now go in with 5 bowlers as above within which we have one all rounder any way – Axar – then we can accommodate a sixth batter which would be Ishan since there is no other batter in the side.
We still run the risk that if any of the batters gets injured, we have no back up available. Given the fitness concerns both Rohit and Virat have been facing of late, that is a possibility which can not be discounted.
Regardless of the above, the Indian team as selected is quite strong and should be tipped to win the series in England.

( A cricket buff right since his college days , Anil Jauhri is   former CEO of the National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies , Quality Council of India , and an international authority on standardisation) 
 

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