Ganguly says new selection panel will pick India's squad for South Africa ODIs 

Many candidates are in the race to replace MSK Prasad and Gagan Khoda.

MSK Prasad's tenure as selection chief has come to the end | GettyBCCI president Sourav Ganguly on Monday (January 27) confirmed that a revamped selection committee, with a newly appointed chief selector, will be picking India's squad for the three-match ODI series at home versus South Africa, beginning March 12. 

Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, Ajit Agarkar, Rajesh Chauhan and Venkatesh Prasad are some of the contenders in the race to try and replace the outgoing selection chief MSK Prasad (South zone) and Gagan Khoda (Central Zone), also part of the current five-member panel. 

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"The Test squad for New Zealand has already been picked by the old committee and new committee's first meeting will be held before home ODI series against South Africa. The interviews for short-listed candidates will happen soon," PTI quoted Ganguly as saying. 

The contenders will be hoping to impress the Cricket Advisory Committee members Madan Lal and Sulakshana Naik and a third individual, who'll be replacing Gautam Gambhir who can't hold any position being a member of the parliament.

"We have decided on Gautam's replacement and the announcement will be made soon. Madan Lal and Sulakshana are there," Ganguly confirmed. 

The board president also informed that all-rounder Hardik Pandya hasn't yet fully recovered from his back surgery. "He can't play right now. It will take some time before he gets fit," he said on Pandya, who had recently failed the fitness test in his bid to make a national comeback on the ongoing tour of New Zealand. 

While his trainer S Rajnikant claimed that Pandya can pass the yo-yo test, the 26-year-old, it is understood, is nowhere near match fitness. 

(Inputs from PTI)

 
 

By Kashish Chadha - 28 Jan, 2020

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