Top 5 biggest challenges for Ajit Agarkar as Indian Cricket Team's chief selector

Former India fast bowler Ajit Agarkar will lead the selection panel consisting of SS Das, Salil Ankola, Subroto Banerjee and S Sharath.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) appointed Former Indian pace bowler Ajit Agarkar as chairman of the selection committee. This position was vacant since February this year as Chetan Sharma had to resign due to a few statements he gave in a string operation. Ajit Agarkar will join Shiv Sundar Das, Salil Ankola, Subroto Banerjee, and S Sharath to lead the BCCI national selection panel. 

The BCCI also has reportedly increased the salary of the National selection committee chairman. Ajit Agarkar will be getting 3 crores per year in salary from the board, as earlier it was 1 crore per year. Ajit Agarkar is now the most experienced person in the national selection panel, as he has played 26 Tests, 191 ODIs, and 4 T20 internationals for India. Ajit will have a few challenges in front of him as Indian cricket is going through a little churn. 

Here are the five biggest challenges the new chairman of selector's, Ajit Agarkar will face:

5. Finding a balance between IPL and Domestic Cricket for Selection

After Sarfaraz Khan’s non-selection in the Indian test team, a debate raged on as Indian selectors gave Indian Premier League performance more weightage than Domestic cricket. As a new selection panel, Chief Ajit Agarkar will have to strike a balance between Indian Domestic Cricket and Indian Premier League for the selection. Players like Sarfaraz Khan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Priyank Panchal, Saurabh Kumar, and a few others have been consistently performing in domestic cricket yet they have not found a place in the squad consistently.

While, the likes of Tilak Varma, Yashasvi Jaiswal have earned call-ups to the T20I team based on their performance in the IPL.

4. Determining the need for red-ball and white-ball split 

A lot of teams have changed the tactics of keeping a core intact and the same player featuring in all three formats. England are a big example of teams getting an advantage from building separate teams for separate formats. Currently, all the formats need different strategies, players and sets of plans. Indian management will have to think beyond their core and look for players more suited for the required format. The roles should be divided among everyone to set a fixed target of winning big ICC titles in each format. 

3. Charting the future of key senior players

This is a time of transition for team India as the seniors like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja are 35 or above 35 in age. In one or two years Indian team management will be looking at young players stepping in to take responsibility. Ajita Agarkar will have a huge task of identifying the players best suited to replace the seniors and also have a chat about their future. India have been waiting for an ICC title for the last 10 years. 

2. Rebuilding the test team

The recently concluded World Test Championship Final has come as a setback for Indian cricket. India suffered a crushing defeat against Australia in the WTC Final at The Oval. As a chairman, National committee Ajit Agarkar will have to work on rebuilding the test team for the upcoming World Test Championship cycle 2023-25. Team India suffered two consecutive WTC Final defeats. Ajit Agarkar will have to scout players fit and ready for India’s prospects. India will have to be well-prepared for the upcoming WTC Cycle. 

While the likes of Cheteshwar Pujara, Umesh Yadav, and

1 . Appointment of Captains in all 3 Formats.

Multiple captaincy is always talked about in Indian cricket but not implemented. Finishing empty-handed in ICC events for the last 10 years, the situation prompted the BCCI to look for building a different pool of players for the different formats.

Rohit Sharma is currently the captain in all three formats of team India, But, as seen in BCCI's advertisement for the selector's role, it was mentioned that the new selector will have to appoint new captains in each formats of the game, It will be interesting to see Ajit Agarkar goes in which direction in his term as they might soon opt for different captains for different formats. As of now, Hardik Pandya is being groomed as a future T20I skipper, and maybe after the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 in India, he might take up the charge in ODIs as well.