Ajit Agarkar Says Picked Indian Team, Not IPL-2024!

Ajit Agarkar looks far from stressed when it comes to selecting Indian teams. The 46-year-old who took 349 wickets across formats for India as an attacking seamer, looks lean and mean and fit enough to compete even today with the red and white ball. The chairman of the BCCI’s senior national selection committee since July 2023, the former Mumbai and India all-rounder who fashioned India’s spectacular victory against Australia in the Adelaide Test of 2003 with an incisive spell of 6 for 41 in the second innings and who can brag about of Lord’s century against England in 2002 articulated at a press conference on Thursday (May 2) that his committee, more or less aligned itself with the needs of the captain Rohit Sharma for the ICC Men’s World Twenty20 in the USA and Caribbean Islands. Agarkar made it plain and simple that his committee picked a 15-member Indian team and not an IPL-2024-XV. Even the selection of Sanju Samson when juxtaposed against KL Rahul (for the second stumper’s slot) was based on the six hitting prowess of the Keralite, and the boundary shots he hit in the ongoing IPL only selection in his favour. Similarly, Shivam Dube’s unbeaten knocks of 60 and 63 in the last series against Afghanistan, followed by his long-lever hitting in the Tata-IPL-17 ensured his selection for the first-time bash under the American sky. Without having to say so by either Agarkar or the captain Rohit Sharma, the rest of the team has been picked on the runs and wickets when turning out for the men in blue team.