BCCI chief selector Ajit Agarkar who made a bold move by naming Suryakumar Yadav as the new T20I captain says they haven’t had any discussion regarding his ODI future.
Right after Rohit Sharma announced T20I retirement post winning the ICC Men’s T20I World Cup 2024, BCCI promoted 33-year-old middle-order batter to fill the vacant spot.
Though BCCI had multiple options to choose from, the selectors and newly appointed head coach Gautam Gambhir preferred Suryakumar Yadav as the new T20I captain.
As Suryakumar Yadav’s cricket history is considerably diminutive when compared to Hardik Pandya’s in terms of international formats, his appointment as T20I captain stirred a controversy of ‘internal politics’ inside the board.
But in a press conference featuring Gautam Gambhir and Ajit Agarkar, the BCCI chief selector revealed the reason for naming Suryakumar Yadav as the T20I captain over Hardik Pandya.
At the same time, Suryakumar Yadav was snubbed in the ODI against Sri Lanka, the same tour in which will he captain the side in the T20I series.
Indian cricket fans and experts were left confused regarding BCCI’s move in team selection and coordination after Gautam Gambhir’s entry as the head coach.
Surprisingly, they include Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul who played their last ODI game in December 2023 in South Africa. While BCCI made some unexpected inclusions in the squad, they also snubbed players like Suryakumar Yadav, Sanju Samson, Ruturaj Gaikwad and many other notable players.
“No, we haven’t discussed Surya at this point in ODI. Shreyas (Iyer) is back, KL (Rahul) is back, they’ve had a great (ODI) World Cup, Rishabh (Pant) is back as well so there is some real quality through that middle order. At this point, Surya is a T20I player,” said Ajit Agarkar.
India’s tour of Sri Lanka 2024 ODI leg will kick start on August 2 with the second and third matches to be played on August 4 and 7 in R.Premadasa Stadium, Colombo.
In the same press meet, Indian head coach Gautam Gambhir revealed his relationship with Virat Kohli and claimed he had a lot of chats with him.
India ODI Squad: Rohit Sharma (C), Ꮪhubman Gill (VC), Virat Kohli, KL Rahul (WK), Rishabh Pant (WK), Shreyas Iyer, Shivam Dube, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Washington Sundar, Arshdeep Singh, Riyan Parag, Axar Patel, Khaleel Ahmed, Harshit Rana.
