Even though it has been over a month since the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) invited applications to form the new selection committee for the senior Indian men’s team, the board is far from making their decision final.
The outgoing selection committee, which comprises chairman Chetan Sharma, Sunil Joshi, Harvinder Singh, and Debasis Mohanty, are continuing to make decisions for the Indian team squads, and all of them were even asked to go and watch the Ranji Trophy matches.
However, with Apex Council formalizing the Cricket Advisory committee, the BCCI is now in a hurry to get the interviews done from the shortlisted applicants, and induct a new panel of selectors before the squad announcement of New Zealand series.
India’s tour of Bangladesh concluded on Sunday, with India taking the Test series 2-0 in Dhaka. 9 days later they will commence the home season, starting with 3 T20I and 3 ODIs against Sri Lanka, the squads for which is expected to be announced in the coming couple of days by Chetan Sharma’s selection panel.
This could well be the last squad that the outgoing selection committee of Chetan Sharma will name, as the BCCI would want to install a new panel by the time they had to announce squads for the 3 ODIs and 3 T20Is against New Zealand at home, the series will be following that against Sri Lanka. The India-New Zealand series starts on January 18.
However, the BCCI could even ask Chetan Sharma and his committee to name squads for both the Sri Lanka and the New Zealand series, so that this doesn’t put the board on a tight deadline to name the new selection committee.
“It will take some time. We are hoping to begin with the interviews only by next week i.e January. So, it will take a minimum of 10 days considering the amount of applications we have received. After Christmas, we will have a call with Chetan and his team on whether it is possible for them to announce both squads together,” a senior BCCI official told InsideSport on Saturday.
BCCI might remove Rohit Sharma as T20I captain
The new selection committee is likely to be finalized and announced and takes the office by the end of January or early February, then they will have their task cut out as their first job will be to announce the squad for the crucial Border-Gavaskar Trophy, the 4 Test series against Australia, which will kick start on February 9.
They will also have to take a call on Rohit Sharma as a captain; whether Sharma will continue as the T20I captain with reports emerging of Hardik Pandya set to be appointed the new Indian skipper in T20Is.
“One has to admit there is the possibility that the new set of selectors will only come before Australia series. The auction delayed the process a bit. But we are doing everything we can to get things done fast. As for the T20 captaincy and everything, those are big calls and need detailed deliberation before taking the call. It can not be in a haste,” the official told InsideSport.
