No threat to Rohit Sharma’s captaincy, BCCI shortlists 20 players for World Cup

New Delhi, January 1

There is no imminent threat to Rohit Sharma’s ODI and Test captaincy as the BCCI hasn’t found anything unsatisfactory about his leadership in the traditional formats, according to sources in the board.

Rohit, along with head coach Rahul Dravid, attended a review meeting conducted by BCCI secretary Jay Shah in Mumbai today. The previous selection committee’s chairman, Chetan Sharma, NCA head VVS Laxman and BCCI president Roger Binny also attended the meeting.

The emerging players will have to play a substantial domestic season to be eligible for selection to the national team. BCCI

Since the focus was on the World Test Championships, in which India have a good chance of qualifying for their second successive final, and the 2023 ODI World Cup, new T20I captain Hardik Pandya wasn’t a part of the meeting. Pandya is in Mumbai for the T20I series against Sri Lanka, which starts on Tuesday.

“Rohit is leading India in Tests and ODIs and there was no discussion about his future as the leader

in these two formats,” a BCCI source said.

It was also decided that a pool of 20 players will be rotated till the 2023 World Cup. “The BCCI has shortlisted 20 players who will be rotated till the World Cup,” Shah said after the meeting.

In what could be a significant move by the board, Sharma could once again retain his chairmanship of the senior national selection panel. If not the chairman, he is likely to be the representative from North Zone. The new committee will be named in the coming week.

Focus on player fitness

The BCCI will also increase its focus on player fitness and consider who have played a substantial domestic season when making selections for the national team.

The board said that the National Cricket Academy will work with the teams in the Indian Premier League to monitor the targeted Indian players participating in the league this year. Issues of player availability, workload management and fitness parameters were also discussed at the meeting.

“The emerging players will have to play a substantial domestic season to be eligible for selection to the national team,” the BCCI statement said.

“The Yo-Yo test and Dexa will now be part of selection criteria and implemented in the customised roadmaps of the central pool of players,” it added.

The Yo-Yo test demands players run back and forth between cones spaced 20 metres apart with increasing speed and reduced time available to complete each shuttle, while a dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA scan) is an imaging test that measures bone density.

Last month after India’s ODI series defeat in Bangladesh, captain Rohit had raised concerns over players pulling up injured repeatedly despite being passed fit.

“We need to try and get to the bottom of it,” Rohit said at that time. “I don’t know what exactly it is. Maybe they’re playing too much cricket. We need to try and monitor those guys, because it’s important to understand when they come for India, they need to be a 100 per cent, in fact more than 100 per cent.”

Deepak Chahar was injured for most parts of 2022, while Jasprit Bumrah (stress fracture on his back) and Ravindra Jadeja (ankle) are recovering from injuries. — Agencies

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