Indian Team & Its Weird Selection Processes: Cricket Is Not Run By Administrators But By PR Agencies
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India's next assignment is against West Indies (Twitter)
Richest board, the most successful cricketing league, three freaking ICC titles, each player nothing less than a GOAT, blah-blah. But despite that, Indian cricket is going through one of its steepest lows. And it's not because of not winning major trophies but because the other teams know the formula to knock out India when it matters the most.
Recently, after the infamous defeat of the WTC Final, the national selectors - behind a regular Chief - named a so-called all-basis covered Test side. Everyone was expecting significant changes in that line-up.
Against the Windies, selectors could have gone with the upcoming and flourishing batting talents and seen who is made of what? The rest to the already-established names could have done the trick.
Giving the rope to somebody like Abhimanyu Easwaran or Sarfaraz Khan would have shown us whether they were cut from different clothes. But that does not happen in our system.
You can't drop rest of 'some' players. If you had done so, a wild wave would have started, and broadcasters wouldn't get enough eyeballs. So, the brainiacs thought of dropping a lesser prominent name, and that's how we saw Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ruturaj Gaikwad made the cut.
It's not a rant but truly a cry that 'What is happening?' Every time after a big loss, the chatter begins. Blame games start to unfold, but as soon as the real-time comes, no hard calls get taken. Just scapegoating happens.
How could a 103-Test-old veteran be treated like that?
Pujara is the 11th Indian to play over 100 Test matches (AP Photo)
Coming back to the WTC final. All of our GOATs were grinding themselves to win the coveted mace while playing in the India Premier League. Although there was just one person, who decided to take the unorthodox road as he prepped himself by representing Sussex in County Championship. And he paid the price of disrespecting IPL as he got dropped from the Test team.
A round of applause for you all for guessing the batter's name (and also reading the sarcasm here).
Alas, things didn't pan out well for Cheteshwar Pujara despite being the best batter in the County in the follow-up to the WTC final. But poor Pujara won the lottery and got scapegoated by BCCI's PR agency administrators.
But don't you worry, people representing the Cheteshwar Pujara fan club - if he shines well in Duleep Trophy and somebody fails on the West Indies tour, then the wave would shift back in the 103-Test-old veteran's favour.
He might have played 103 Test matches, scored over 7000 runs, or notched 19 centuries; if he doesn't fit well in PR's scheme of things, then be it. That's how ball rolls in today's time in Indian cricket.
Just because of their fan-following, can't Rohit & Virat be touched?
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Both Rohit & Virat had a mediocre WTC Final at the Oval (AP Photo)
It wasn't just the former Indian No. 3 who struggled with the bat during the pinnacle fixture against Australia last month. Rohit Sharma got 15 & 43, Virat Kohli scored 14 & 49, Shubman Gill had a 13 & 18, and KS Bharat notched a total of 28 runs.
Alright, Pujara has had an average of 29.69 since the start of 2020, but Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane's numbers were equally worse. The latter also had to prove himself to make a comeback. And after returning well into the Indian lineup, he got to be the deputy to Rohit after being India's best batter in WTC Final.
Pujara got dropped after his below-par performances, but the yardstick should be the same for everyone. Rohit got saved because he's carrying the captain's hat, while Kohli is the 'King' - as they happily call him. But shouldn't the selection norms be same for everyone?
Is domestic cricket just happening as a formality?
Because of their fantabulous knocks in the IPL, Gaikwad and Jaiswal became brands. There performances in domestic cycle are dazzling as well.
Jaiswal has scored 1845 runs in 15 First-Class games, while Gaikwad has 1941 FC runs to his name after 28 games.
Impeccable, right?
But wait a moment.
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Easwaran, Gaikwad, Sarfaraz, Jaiswal in that order (L to R)
Hailing from Bengal, Easwaran has been proving himself time and again - 6556 runs off 87 matches including 22 hundreds and 28 half-centuries in red-ball games. Sarfaraz Khan - who has the best batting average after Sir Bradman after playing 50 innings - has 3505 runs at an astonishing average of just around 80.
However, those two batters can't come in consideration.
Why?
Don't you know about the unsaid rule... Ranji trophy is fine but setting up IPL on fire is what matters the most.
(Note to the reader: IPL is the keyword here)
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.jpg "Gavaskar opines")
 "Arjun Bhalla")