The future of some senior India players will be decided after the tour of Australia as the BCCI evaluates the shocking 0-3 drubbing against New Zealand at home while rolling out a structured phaseout policy before the start of the next WTC cycle.
There is a high possibility that the five-match Test series against Australia could be the final one for at least two of the four seniors among Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin, who are in the last leg of their international careers.
“Look, I don’t think we can look that far ahead. It’s important to focus on the next series, which is Australia,” Rohit said when asked for his thoughts on India’s Test future given there is limited time left in his captaincy.
“I’m not going to look beyond Australia series. Australia series, for us is now very, very important. We will try and focus on that rather than thinking what happens after,” he said.
An informal discussion could take place between BCCI bigwigs and chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar, head coach Gautam Gambhir, and skipper Rohit about the way forward for an ageing team.
“Stocks will be taken certainly and it could be of informal nature since the team leaves for Australia on November 10. But this has been a huge debacle but, with Australia series round the corner and the squad already announced, there won’t be any tinkering,” a senior BCCI source told PTI on the condition of anonymity.
“But if India doesn’t qualify for WTC final in England, one can be rest assured that all four super seniors won’t be on that flight to UK for the ensuing five-Test series. In any case, all four have likely played their final Test at home together,” the source added.
It is understood that the BCCI is not keen on repeating the 2011 saga when suddenly an old team was found to be out of sorts and hence the selectors, especially chairman Agarkar and head coach Gambhir, would need to talk to the senior cricketers about the plan ahead.
For India to not depend on any other calculations to qualify for the WTC final, they would require a 4-0 result Down Under, which as of now looks next to impossible.
India can still qualify after losing the Border Gavaskar-Trophy if other teams don’t fare well.
But once the Australia series is over and if India don’t qualify — the next cycle will start with five Test series in England from June 20 next year at Leeds — the selection committee might be compelled to look at long-term prospects with chances given to players like Sai Sudharsan, Devdutt Padikkal, who look ready for international cricket.
With Washington Sundar emerging as a strong prospect for the next 10 years, Ashwin’s future in India whites could be up for discussion once the Australia series gets over.
Jadeja, with better fitness and handy batting on foreign tracks, might be persisted with although there is a ready replacement for Indian conditions in Axar Patel, with Manav Suthar being third in the pecking order.
In case of batters, between February 2021 to the current match, skipper Rohit Sharma scored 1210 runs from 35 innings in home Tests at an average of 37.81 with four hundreds, but in the last 10 innings, there has been six scores of less than 10 runs and two scores of less than 20, with two half-centuries.
During the same period, Virat Kohli has played 25 innings at home for 742 runs at an average of 30.91, and one century on a flat Ahmedabad deck.
“No doubt pitches in Australia will be far better for batting but erasing self doubts after this kind of humiliation will be a difficult ask,” a former selector said.
While Kohli with his supreme fitness can overstay his invitation despite poor returns for close to four years, one can’t see Rohit playing beyond this cycle of World Test Championship.
Jasprit Bumrah has been named vice-captain but he might not be the long-term solution due to his workload management, with Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant being the two candidates who look suitable for Test leadership.
