BCCI unveiled new look Indian T20I squad with Shreyas Iyer as new captain.
Former India opener S Ramesh has questioned the BCCI selection committee’s decisions after they announced Team India’s squad for the upcoming T20I tours in Ireland, England, and the Asian Games 2026.
The biggest thing highlighted by Ramesh was the selection of pacer Harshit Rana, who suffered a knee injury just before the T20 World Cup 2026 and underwent surgery, missing the event and also the IPL 2026.
He blasted the BCCI selection committee's decision to bring Harshit straight back into the side, claiming that it would send a wrong message to players like Mohammed Shami.
"How have you selected Harshit Rana? I don't think he has played any domestic cricket after knee surgery. Nobody knows the answer to this. Just imagine Shami's mind voice now, or even the others' mind voice," Ramesh stated on his Instagram handle.
Ramesh asserted that although the selection committee had established a standard for players to demonstrate their fitness in domestic cricket, Harshit's case did not follow it.
"Whether it was a Virat Kohli or Rohit Sharma, the management said they had to play domestic cricket to be considered for selection. Even when Hardik Pandya got injured, he was asked to prove his fitness for selection. For Shami, they questioned if he could bowl longer spells after injury and asked him to prove himself after injury," Ramesh explained.
"The current T20I skipper, Shreyas Iyer, himself was asked to prove his fitness before the New Zealand ODIs by playing the Vijay Hazare Trophy. There are many such examples like this. So they've set the precedent that if a player has to come back into the Indian team, especially after injury, he must prove himself and his fitness in domestic cricket," he added.
Harshit Rana is being groomed as a sort of a bowler-cum-lower order hitter, given his talent with the bat and big-hitting prowess.