The rare sight of Ajit Agarkar watching a domestic game swamped social media handles on Friday after the chairman of the selection committee was snapped in Ahmedabad during a Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy match.
While Agarkar has rarely shown the inclination to watch a Ranji Trophy match, he has been a constant on overseas tours, be it Australia, England or Dubai. He was in Australia for the ODI and T20I series earlier this month too, with Shiv Sundar Das in tow, when the first-class season was in full swing at home.
How much sense it made for two national selectors to be in Australia for a white-ball series could trigger a debate, but it certainly deprived some of the promising domestic players from coming into the limelight. They have been made to plough a lonely furrow, frustratingly waiting for the five wise men to dwell into their data and statistics.
At a time when the feeder line for the national team has almost dried up, as was evident during the Test series against South Africa, the selectors’ lack of proactiveness has come to the fore.
Jammu & Kashmir have played five matches so far, but Ajay Ratra was only there for their opener in mid-October. The team has since featured in four more games in the Ranji Trophy, but none were there to watch Auqib Nabi, the pacer who is the second-highest wicket-taker in the league and is already creating ripples in the circuit.
There have been multiple examples of a chief selector making a trip to remote areas of India in the past to get a first-hand view of a targeted player once he has showcased his talent. More than the number of wickets or runs, it is about how he fares in different conditions and the rhythm and flair he generates.
“A player is best assessed when more than one selector gets the opportunity to have a look at him and on varying surfaces. That is when you know if he can stand the grind of international cricket,” said a former national selector.
Agarkar and his team seem to be working on a different wavelength, oblivious to the requirements of the team and thus unable to keep a tab on the progress made by the youngsters waiting in the wings to break into the fold.
Remember, this chief selector was had made it mandatory for the India players to participate in domestic tournaments whenever the opportunity arose. The BCCI brass didn’t even bat an eyelid before wielding the axe on Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan for failing to meet commitments with the state team.
This is not the first time Agarkar has come under scrutiny for failing to stay in touch with the grassroots.
Six years ago, the Agarkar-led Mumbai senior selection panel was forced to resign en masse hours before the Mumbai Cricket Association’s ad hoc committee was to discuss their fate. A special general meeting of the state body had passed a resolution to sack Agarkar’s men after the selectors were accused of not watching enough local matches, among other aspects, for non-performance of the side.
At a time when the national red-ball team has been struggling with the next line of bowlers, Agarkar’s team’s incompetence is showing in their failure to create a proper bench strength.
“I remember returning home from New Zealand in 2017-18 early in the morning and then taking another flight to Rajkot few hours later to watch Jharkhand and Saurashtra,” said another selector.
The national selectors’ hard work was perhaps best exemplified when India breached the Gabba fortress in 2021, epitomising resilience and team spirit to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. With at least six frontline players missing, the reserve bench put up a scintillating performance.
MSK Prasad’s committee should be lauded for working closely with the then team management and National Cricket Academy chief Rahul Dravid to put in place an equally capable set of reserve players for any eventuality. Can Agarkar’s panel put together red-ball players of a near-similar calibre if the regulars are unavailable?
Choosing a white-ball team is much easier since the IPL franchises have their own talent scouts who tour every corner of the country to find the choicest talent. The selectors’ performance can be best judged by how the red-ball team does in Tests.
Has any concerted effort been made to watch the likes of Sarfaraz Khan or
Abhimanyu Easwaran or Baba Indrajith? Agarkar has only been too happy to dump experience and go for all-rounders.
Neither Karun Nair nor Mohammed Shami has been given a second chance on home soil despite their success in familiar conditions amid the team’s pathetic show. RP Singh was in Calcutta for the Gujarat match, but none have bothered to check on Shami’s fitness and craft since.
Agarkar himself was at Eden Gardens for the opener against South Africa but didn’t take any initiative to go to Kalyani, a couple of hours drive from the city, where Bengal took on Assam the day after the Test ended.
Has it been written in stone that Nair or Shami will not get a second chance even if their presence could benefit the side? Aren’t such dogmatic beliefs leading the team to
tragedy? Chaotic change in personnel has already started to derail India’s quest to reach the final of the World Test Championship. Head coach Gautam Gambhir and captain Shubman Gill cannot always be censured.
The process must be closely knit with the selection committee working in tandem with the team management. As chairman, Agarkar has to take both the initiative and the brickbats. He needs to travel across the corners of the country to unearth potential players and keep the feeder line vibrant.