Former India pacer Venkatesh Prasad, off-spinner Ashish Kapoor and left-arm spinner Maninder Singh are some of the prominent names that are doing rounds for the national selectors post after the BCCI completed its interview process on Tuesday.
A section of the Board of Control for Cricket in India's old guard, especially from the Narayanaswami Srinivasan faction, is set to advocate a pull-out from the Champions Trophy despite the Committee of Administrators' (COA) warning of possible consequences.
India, without captain Virat Kohli and veteran Mahendra Singh Dhoni, won't have it easy against T20 World champions West Indies, who are bolstered by the arrival of star players Darren Bravo, Kieron Pollard and Andre Russell.
The Jharkhand team has qualified for the knockout stages of the Ranji Trophy but till date Dhoni has not given any indication that he would like to play.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni enthralled one and all with some breathtaking sixes but a young Bengal side put up a spirited display to beat Jharkhand by 41 runs and enter the Vijay Hazare final in Ranchi, on Saturday.
Former India captain Kapil Dev feels that despite all his talent, speedster Ishant Sharma lacks the ability to bowl "wicket-taking deliveries" more consistently. Ishant, who missed the series against New Zealand due to Chikungunya, is back in the squad for the upcoming England Tests starting November 9 in Rajkot. The lanky pacer's Test statistics of 209 Test wickets from 72 games with a strike rate of 66.6 (nearly 11 and half overs for a wicket) stick out like a sore thumb and Kapil said he has to strive for consistency.
Images from Wednesday's IPL Eliminator between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Delhi Capitals, in Visakhapatnam.
The spotlight though was on the 36-year-old former India captain, who now has to fend off questions about his future with alarming regularity.
Veteran Yuvraj Singh made a comeback to the Indian team, while Virat Kohli took over the captaincy from Mahendra Singh Dhoni, for the forthcoming three-match ODI and T20I series against England, starting in Pune, on January 15.
Assistant coach Sanjay Bangar, on Thursday, said neither opposition nor conditions would really matter for a supremely-confident Indian team, eyeing its first series win in South Africa.
Rishabh Pant is a 'champion cricketer in the making', who is very much in the mix for the 2019 India's World Cup campaign for his ability to seamlessly switch formats, says chairman of selectors MSK Prasad.
Pant has broken into the Test mainly on the basis of his batting and not his glove work.
Fit again Rohit Sharma and Mohammad Shami on Monday staged comeback in India's 15-member ODI squad.
Selection committee chairman MSK Prasad made it clear that the Gujarat speedster's 'workload management' is paramount for him.
Indian cricket ushered in a new era as Virat Kohli was officially anointed captain for all three formats as he took over from Mahendra Singh Dhoni as India's limited overs captain from the series against England, starting on January 15.
While he continues to be available as a wicketkeeper-batsman in ODIs and T20Is, the ICC Champions Trophy in England in June could be an indicator whether he would continue as a player till the 2019 World Cup.
When India played their last time, the two four day games were played at Rustenberg and Pretoria while the tri-series was entirely played in Pretoria. The 'Test' series was drawn 1-1 while List A tri-series was won by India. The current tour has been scheduled after the 10th edition of Indian Premier League where all the top players are expected to play. "The A tours give ideal opportunity to the performers in domestic cricket to showcase their talent. Look at the likes of Priyank Panchal, who has scored over 1000 runs or youngsters like Rishabh Pant and Ishan Kishan who have caught the attention -- the selectors will get a chance to test if they are ready for the next level or not," a top BCCI source said.
Formidable India will hope to get more answers for their unsettled middle-order puzzle when they take on a reeling West Indies in the five-match ODI series, starting Sunday and ticking off the home team's countdown to the 2019 World Cup.
Ashwin, Jadeja likely to be rested; Team selection on Aug 13
Pant had so far scored 222 runs in the IPL compared to a mere 93 by Karthik, but the latter's experience helped tilt the scale in his favour for the mega-event, starting in England from May 30.
Wriddhiman Saha remained unfazed in his finest cricketing hour and said his twin half centuries against New Zealand in Kolkata carry 'more value' than his unbeaten 203 in the Irani Cup, perhaps one of his best knocks.
'Rishabh is fine batsman but needs to do improve with gloves'
Mahendra Singh Dhoni is irreplaceable in the Indian ODI team right now, feels national coach Ravi Shastri
"The only sad thing about being a selector is that you end up losing some of your friends," said Sandeep Patil after the selection panel, headed by him, picked the last Indian cricket squad of its tenure in Mumbai on Monday. Patil, who was appointed the chairman of selectors following the sacking of Mohinder Amarnath in September 2012, said he ends his term as a happy man.
Speculations may be rife that Yuvraj Singh's career is nearing the end but chief selector MSK Prasad on Monday clarified.
Mayank Agarwal, who was the third opener for the West Indies series, is a contender for the yet-to-be-decided squad of 17 that will travel Down Under.
Veteran Ashish Nehra has mounted a stinging counter-attack on chief selector MSK Prasad for his comments on the seamer's retirement, saying he started playing without the selectors' permission and is leaving it likewise.
Ashish Nehra is hardly bothered about the doubters and cynics as he revels in the feeling of being a sought after pacer for India at the age of 38.
Veteran opener Gautam Gambhir kept his place, while all-rounder Hardik Pandya was the surprise inclusion in the 15-member Indian squad for the first two matches of the five-match Test series against England, starting in Rajkot, on November 9.
'First time in my life I have not had the 90s butterfly. Otherwise, I don't remember previous centuries, but I used to have butterflies from what I can remember. In today's game when I batted I was in a different zone.'
'Aggressive intent' was the key behind India's overwhelming success against New Zealand in the Test series and the hosts aim to continue playing the same brand of cricket in the upcoming five-match ODI series, middle-order batsman Ajinkya Rahane said, in Dharamsala, on Friday.
Kohli, who was named man-of-the-match for the 2nd Test that India won against Sri Lanka in Nagpur on Monday, will play the third and final Test in New Delhi.
BCCI boss Anurag Thakur on Tuesday slammed former selection commmittee chief Sandeep Patil, saying it was "unethical" on his part to reveal certain confidential details about Sachin Tendulkar, M S Dhoni and others after his tenure ended earlier this month. Thakur stopped short of saying that action will be taken against Patil but said "right people in the BCCI" will speak to him soon over the issue which has created a major controversy. Patil, a former international cricketer, recently disclosed that the selection panel would have dropped Sachin Tendulkar before he eventually quit international cricket and that it had also considered removing M S Dhoni from ODI captaincy ahead of the 2015 World Cup.
A look at what can happen if the Supreme Court decides to implement the reforms the Justice Lodha panel recommended for the BCCI.
It would be interesting to see whether the selectors repose faith in veteran Gautam Gambhir, who made a half-century in the second innings of the third and final Test against New Zealand in Indore, if KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan are both passed fit to play.
Any other result than India's resounding win looks highly unlikely, consdering the visitors' rampaging run in the preceding Test and ODI series, where they whitewashed the hosts 3-0 and 5-0 respectively.
Thampi, Rana, Tripathi are big gains from IPL-10.
India captain Virat Kohli wants specific roles for certain players keeping a two-year time frame leading upto the 2019 World Cup in mind.
The Mumbai youngster took the place of Kedar Jadhav, who was dropped from the T20I squad after his below-par showing in the three-match series against Australia.
India will begin the journey to identify the core of their 2019 World Cup squad when they square off against a low-on-confidence Sri Lanka in a five-match ODI series, starting in Dambulla, on Sunday.
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