After what can be termed as a disappointing end to a brilliant ICC World Cup 2019 campaign, the Indian team is supposed to board the plane back to Mumbai on Sunday and it has been reported that captain Virat Kohli and head coach Ravi Shastri have been summoned for a review meeting by Committee of Administrators (CoA).
The meeting will include chairman of selectors MSK Prasad as well and CoA members led by chairman Vinod Rai, Diana Edulji and Lt Gen (Retd) Ravi Thodge will also have discussions for a roadmap for the upcoming ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in 2020 in Australia.
“We will certainly have a review meeting once the coach and the captain are back from their breaks. I will not put a date and time but we will speak to them. Also, we will speak to selection committee head on road ahead. India’s campaign has just ended. How, when and where are not the questions that I will be able to tell you now,” Rai told PTI.
There are likely to be a few issues that need to be discussed and at the forefront of it is how the Ambato Rayudu issue was handled. The right-handed batsman from Hyderabad was backed by captain Kohli to be the answer to the no.4 question of the Indian batting lineup. However, Vijay Shankar pipped him, after Rayudu had a bad series against Australia at home.
Rayudu was then named as one of the reserves for the World Cup, but then was ignored after Dhawan and Shankar suffered injuries and Pant and Mayank Agarwal was named as replacements. This led to Ambati Rayudu call time on his cricketing career.
Another issue that might be discussed can be the selection of Dinesh Karthik as backup wicketkeeper. His selection and later Pant coming in meant that the team played all the three keepers, including MS Dhoni in some of the matches.
The third issue to be discussed might be MS Dhoni’s batting position in the semi-final against New Zealand. Many experts and even commentators including Sourav Ganguly termed it a big blunder to not send the veteran batsman up the order when India lost 3 wickets for five runs chasing 240 runs. It has been learned that batting coach Sanjay Bangar was the one who decided on Dhoni’s slot and Shastri might be asked to give his view on the decision.
While the current five-member selection panel will continue till the BCCI AGM, it is expected that the chairman of selectors Prasad will be asked to be more assertive in selection meetings. It has also been noticed that the other two members Sarandeep Singh and Devang Gandhi have not been giving enough inputs during selection meetings.
“Agreed that none of them have the stature of a Dilip Vengsarkar but together they can still hold their ground on cricketing logic. Neither Sarandeep nor Devang offer any tangible inputs. MSK got some respite once Jatin Paranjpe and Gagan Khoda re-joined,” a senior BCCI source said.
