The Supreme Court's recent order on the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has hit the cash-rich board hard, but the show has to go on. With the amount of cricket to be played in the upcoming months, the day-to-day functioning of Indian cricket cannot take a back seat.
India team announced for England ODI and T20 series
Hence, the selectors of the India cricket team are set to meet on January 6 to select the squad for the upcoming England ODI and T20 series.
"The meeting of the All-India Senior Selection Committee of the BCCI will be held on Friday, January 06, 2017, at 12:30 PM IST at the BCCI headquarters, Cricket Centre, Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai," said BCCI release.
Things are not still clear if all the selectors, including Gagan Khoda and Jatin Paranjape, can play an active role in the meet as they do not meet the criteria suggested by the Lodha committee.
As per the Lodha panel, the members of the selection committee should be former Test player, but the duo have only played limited overs cricket for India. Other selectors MSK Prasad, Devang Gandhi and Sarandeep Singh have played Test cricket for India.
However, even if it is with or without the duo, the selectors have a huge task on their hands. They need to look into the fitness of the players before making a call on the selection. Players like Mohammad Shami, Rohit Sharma and Axar Patel have already been ruled out of the series.
Earlier, there were talks suggesting that selectors were also mulling on the idea of resting key spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. But, things might change with spinners like Patel ruled out and Jayant Yadav also injured.
However, this might have opened doors for Shahbaz Nadeem, who has been impressive this season in the domestic circuit. He has been handy with the bat, which increases his chances of selection. Amit Mishra is expected to feature as one of the spinners too.
As far as the seamers' department is concerned, with Shami injured, Ishant Sharma should get into the side. Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar are also expected to find a place in the squad. It also depends on the number of spinners and fast bowlers India will want to have in their squad. Hardik Pandya could feature as a fast-bowling all-rounder.
In the batting department, especially in the opening slot without Rohit, some serious thinking needs to be done by the selectors. Shikhar Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane could be an ideal choice, but the former missed out on the Test series, while the latter did not feature in the last two matches due to injuries. Have they recovered from their injuries to play an important part in the limited overs series?
Karun Nair is back in contention after his epic triple ton in the fifth Test. Manish Pandey and KL Rahul should also feature in the squad. With MS Dhoni deciding to quit captaincy from ODI and T20 cricket, Virat Kohli is expected to lead India against England in limited overs series as well.
