Having himself played for India, Ravichandran Ashwin sympathize with Ajit Agarkar, the BCCI’s selection committee chairman, and spoke on the battle for places in the team. The exclusion of star players such as Sanju Samson, Karun Nair, and Ruturaj Gaikwad from the Champions Trophy squad announced by India skipper Rohit Sharma and Agarkar, has gained attention. Agarkar has generally been in the limelight for ignoring players who have been consistent in domestic cricket.
Highlighting India’s pool of extremely talented batters, Ashwin spoke about how difficult it is to be the chairman of selectors, adding, “Trust me, I’d prefer not to be in Agarkar’s shoes.”
“Yashasvi Jaiswal should also be back in T20Is. He was in the World Cup squad, and definitely has to be one of the preferred openers. I mean, I don’t wanna be the chairman of selectors or the team manager or whatever position that’s in a position to make decisions. It’s going to be a problem of plenty, for the selectors, since both Gill and Ruturaj score runs in the upcoming IPL season. As fans of the Indian cricket team, we are blessed to have this pool of talented players.” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.
Ashwin further shares that players who are capable of performing in crunch situations must be given priority during selection meetings for big tournaments, moving forward.
“Well, going forward, we need to ensure that whatever the performance is, we will use pressure parameters for big tournaments. Players who play well under pressure must be given some weight. Because actually, modern cricket gives so many talents, in batting many times. We really don’t have a parameter for that but we must-definition of such.”