Ajit Agarkar, BCCI come under heavy fire for ‘backwards’ Asia Cup selections: ‘No chance of winning with this bunch'

It’s almost impossible to pick a 15-member squad for a cricket tournament that makes everyone happy, and that once again proved to be the case after the BCCI and the selectors’ committee led by Ajit Agarkar named the team for the upcoming Asia Cup. This time, it was former Indian opener Krishnamachari Srikkanth who questioned the selection choices. Suryakumar Yadav and Ajit Agarkar announced India's selection decisions for the upcoming Asia Cup.(AFP)

Speaking on his Youtube channel, the outspoken former opener didn’t bite his tongue as he took some of the players chosen to travel to the UAE.

“We might win the Asia Cup with this team, but there is no chance of winning the T20 World Cup with this bunch,” said Srikkanth, immediately questioning some of the calibre of players India opted for. “Are you going to take this team to the World Cup? Is this the preparation for the T20 World Cup, which is hardly six months away?”

India will be defending champions at next year’s T20I World Cup at home and in Sri Lanka, and as such will be early favourites. While the starting lineup looks well-rounded and extremely powerful, Srikkanth’s contentions began with the bench options, with the backups not being up to the mark.

Srikkanth names names regarding his criticism

Srikkanth also argued that nominating Axar Patel as vice-captain only to remove him again indicates that the forward progress essential to the team is not taking place.

“They have gone backwards. Axar Patel has been axed from vice-captaincy. I don’t know how Rinku Singh, Shivam Dube and Harshit Rana have come in,” said Srikkanth.

Further, he went on to argue that the BCCI’s selectors couldn’t seem to make their mind up about what factors to value, with the selections of that trio despite a quiet run in the IPL really surprising the former opener. “IPL is considered the main criteria for selection, but the selectors seem to have considered performances before that,” he said.

Dube, Rinku, and Rana did have a quiet IPL, with the main selection disappointment for most fans being the non-inclusion of Shreyas Iyer, who had a historic season as both batter and skipper of the Punjab Kings. Along with Iyer, the likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal were also looked over, with the choice to opt for the incumbent international players being made rather than unsettling too many of the personnel ahead of the Asia Cup.

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