Former Indian off-spinner Aashish Kapoor has been appointed as Chief of the All-India Junior Selection Committee by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Tuesday (3 March).

Kapoor is all set to replace Venkatesh Prasad in the three-member All-India Junior Selection Committee, which also have other two members – Gyanendra Pandey and Rakesh Parikh.

Last month, former India seamer Venkatesh had resigned from his post of the chairman of the junior selection committee to join the Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) as their bowling coach for the IPL 2018.

Earlier, Aashish was a part of the original five-member selection panel in 2016, but later dropped out, as the BCCI had to shorten it to three-member as per Lodha panel diktat.

As per reports in Press Trust of India, a senior BCCI official said, “Since selectors can only be replaced in an AGM, the BCCI, for past one year, has been paying Kapoor his monthly salary. When Prasad resigned, it was only natural that Kapoor comes back in the panel. Since he has played international cricket, he was preferred over Amit Sharma.”

Meanwhile, BCCI Acting President CK Khanna said in a release, “I wish him all the very best for this endeavour. I am sure he has a lot to offer when it comes to being a part of the junior selection committee with his varied expertise and experience in the game. India have a rich talent pool and it is important to identify the talent at a young age and nurture them.”

Kapoor has played four Tests and 17 ODIs for India, including the 1996 ICC World Cup, as well as, 128 First-class matches and 93 List-A matches for Tamil Nadu.