After India’s semi-final exit from the Cricket World Cup there have been many speculations regarding what’s the future course of action is going to be like. In today’s press conference MSK Prasad, BCCI’s Senior Selection Committee Chairman tried his best to explain their decisions with regards to the selection of the team for the Windies tour and also the changes made during the World Cup owing to injuries to certain players.
Taking the stellar performances for India A into consideration, Shreyas Iyer and Manish Pandey got picked for the shorter formats. They now will be entrusted to save the team’s blushes in the middle order which has been a concern for sometime now. Rishabh Pant has been picked in all the three formats and clearly given the long rope and a grooming period going into next year’s T20 World Cup. After a successful campaign with Mumbai Indians in the 2019 IPL and good performance for India A, the leg spinner Rahul Chahar has been picked in the T20 squad. Prasad categorically mentioned that there is a definite policy post the World Cup by which they want to groom the youngsters. M.S.Dhoni who will be joining the parachute regiment for the next two months made himself unavailable for the Windies tour. The Chairman of the Senior Selection Committee expressed that retirement is entirely an individual decision and a legendary player like M.S.Dhoni for sure knows when to retire but held that the road map ahead is entirely in the selector’s hand. With the key decisions made in picking the squads for the Windies tour it’s quite obvious that the selectors want to give opportunities to youngsters. Without the experience of M.S.Dhoni behind the stumps in the shorter formats it’s going to be a challenge for the team and also Virat Kohli in leading the side but it remains to be seen if the youngsters make full use of this opportunity or wilt under pressure. This transitioning phase offers its own excitement for a devout Indian Cricket fan and this Caribbean tour is going to be one to watch out for as to how the team shapes up and performs.
22 YARDS and beyond..... 