Mumbai: The who is who of Indian men’s cricket, including head coach Gautam Gambhir, chief selector Ajit Agarkar, Centre of Excellence (COE) head VVS Laxman, Test and ODI captain Shubman Gill and T20I captain Shreyas Iyer will join BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia, the convenor, in a stock-taking meeting at the board’s Mumbai headquarters on Thursday.
The meeting is expected to review and look ahead in an attempt to address bottlenecks in planning and improve coordination between these key functionaries. It will look back at the recent past where the T20I team suffered a shock 0-2 series defeat to Ireland and was trounced 0-4 by England. It will also review inconsistent ODI results where three of the last five series were lost against Australia, New Zealand and England.
All the key stakeholders would want to look ahead to the upcoming Test series – away against New Zealand and at home against Australia – with
better planning. While the World Test Championship final already appears to be a tall order, getting back to winning ways in Test cricket and regaining home dominance is a more urgent necessity.
COE in focus over fitness issues
There is a word of concern from the selection room over a growing trend of players being unable to regain full fitness from injuries within expected timelines. Of late, there have been instances of a number of players, after being passed fit, breaking down during international action. After being cleared following their IPL duties, Nitish Reddy dropped out during the Afghanistan ODI series in June with a left quad injury, Harshit Rana and Varun Chakravarthy went out during the England T20I series in July with hamstring injuries, and Washington Sundar was ruled out with a right hamstring injury from the following ODIs series in England.
After these embarrassments, the COE has become extra sensitive with return-to-play protocols, leaving selectors to pick players with a “subject to fitness” asterisk.
Sai Sudharsan and Jasprit Bumrah were selected subject to fitness for the recent Sri Lanka Tests but never made it. Washington, who was passed unfit from the first Test in Sri Lanka is yet to be cleared, but has been picked subject to fitness for the upcoming Afghanistan T20Is. Bumrah, Rana and Reddy, all on the mend, have an asterisk against their name for this month’s T20I action.
The COE has been without a sports science head, a vital position that has been vacant for nearly 18 months. “It is expected of the COE medical team to tell the selectors whether a player is fit to be picked or not and the risks involved. With no one of authority accountable for the call, they end up being non-committal,” a BCCI functionary told HT. As a result, players being picked subject to fitness, which should be an exception, has become a rule.
These are matters BCCI is well aware of. Last month, Saikia and Laxman told the media about suitable candidates for the post of sports science head with sports fitness expertise unwilling to relocate to Bengaluru where COE is based. Although the meeting is unlikely to find a lasting solution, discussions at a meeting full of important people could help improve things.
On India’s weak T20I showings after the World Cup, the selectors and team management may want to improve internal coordination, which was lacking when Vaibhav Sooryavanshi was blooded in international cricket at Sanju Samson’s expense.
Rohit Sharma’s future
The immediate concern around the ODI team is the sensitive selection call over former captain Rohit Sharma’s future. It is understood the selectors had lost confidence in his ability to retain form and fitness until the next World Cup and spoke to him before the England series. The selectors and team management were under the impression that Rohit would retire after the England ODIs, but on the eve of the final ODI at Lord’s, Saikia dismissed such talk as speculation.
Whether Agarkar raises the matter or BCCI intervenes after Rohit’s hundred at Lord’s remains to be seen. Agarkar continuing as chief selector itself is a matter for BCCI discussions. He is known to have expressed a desire to exit when his contract expires in September, but BCCI is yet to take a call.