– Subhayan Chakraborty
First round of interviews for the five posts of the Indian senior national selection committee was conducted by the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) on Monday as the BCCI looks to chalk a roadmap for the future. While the second lot of candidates will be interviewed on Tuesday, Chetan Sharma is likely to continue as the chairman of the selection committee with Harvinder Singh (Central Zone) also set to continue. Former India opener Shiv Sunder Das (East Zone) is also a favourite to join the panel, as reported by RevSportz earlier on Monday.
While the future roadmap of Indian cricket was firmly the central focus of the interview, some general questions were “What should be a three-year leadership plan across formats once Rohit Sharma’s captaincy tenure ends?” ”What is the pool of Gen-Next spinners that we have across formats?” ”Is any 2022 U-19 World Cup-winning player ready to be upgraded to the highest level?” ”Can there be any other option apart from KS Bharath, who could be tried as Test keeper in Rishabh Pant’s absence?”, as reported by PTI while further stating that the Board will hand out contracts on a yearly basis.
With Rishabh Pant out for a considerable amount of time following a horrific car accident, the candidates were quizzed about who could take the gloves during the Border Gavaskar Trophy against Australia in February. KS Bharat, who was backup to Pant, is the leading candidate. Ishan Kishan could be one name who could be in contention. Not only is Kishan in good run of form after scoring 132 vs Kerala in Ranji Trophy on the back of scintillating 210-run knock against Bangladesh in ODIs, him being left-handed with attacking game-play makes him a like-for-like player to replace Pant in the Test XI.
With 2023 ODI World Cup at home and 2024 T20 World Cup in USA and West Indies, the candidates were thoroughly asked about the future course with next-gen in focus.
With Chetan Sharma likely to retain the top post, it remains to be seen how the next few months pan out for Indian cricket and how the 56-year-old chairman of selectors bounce back after being left hanging a month back by the BCCI.
(With inputs from PTI)