“There was no such discussion on this in today’s meeting. BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia dismissed rumours regarding chief selector Ajit Agarkar’s tenure ending or changes to the senior men’s selection committee, as well as hiring a director of cricket for the men’s setup. I do not comment on new rumours. We did not have any such discussions, nor did we have such intentions.
Earlier, there had been reports that VVS Laxman was being considered for such a role within the BCCI.
The long-pending review meeting was initially supposed to happen in July to address India’s T20I series defeats in England and Ireland, along with the ODI series loss to England. “He is playing superbly in all matches. So what more do you want? So why is there a speculation?
But it was pushed back and finally happened on Thursday due to India’s T20I tour of Zimbabwe and Test tour of Sri Lanka, where they won 3-0 and 1-0, respectively. In the last match, he scored 138-148 runs.
So, I do not want to give fodder for the speculators,” Saikia told reporters at the conclusion of the meeting.
“There was no discussion on the selection committee. Because we have a lot of series now.”, we have basically thought about what should be our way forward about our team preparations and all,.
Our whole focus was on performances in England and Ireland, as well as the recent Test series in Sri Lanka and what we are going to do in the upcoming series before the ODI World Cup, which is our ultimate goal.
Today, the selectors were not part of the discussion. “We have not discussed all these things regarding the team selection, team combination, who will be playing in what format. For that, selectors will take a call. So when the selectors meet to select the team for the West Indies series, as well as thereafter for the New Zealand series, they will consider whatever parameters are to be considered by them,” concluded Saikia. India’s T20I captain Shreyas Iyer, Test and ODI skipper Shubman Gill, head coach Gautam Gambhir, and Centre of Excellence (CoE) head VVS Laxman attended the crucial review meeting. They were joined by top BCCI officials – President Mithun Manhas, Secretary Saikia, Joint Secretary Prabhtej Singh Bhatia and interim Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Hemang Amin. “So, we had discussions, and we basically discussed how our team performed in England and Ireland, and also we are thinking about what we are going to do over the next one year.
The roadmap has been prepared, and we will be doing some exercises so that we have a very good performance in the 2027 World Cup. BCCI Secretary Devajit Saikia clarified that the former captain’s spot remains secure after the board convened to analyse recent overseas tours and map out strategies leading up to the 2027 ODI World Cup. The review focused heavily on addressing setbacks on tours of England and Ireland, as the senior men’s team prepares for a grueling upcoming schedule that includes T20Is against Afghanistan, white-ball games against the West Indies, Asian Games T20 trip in Japan, multi-format tour of New Zealand, ODIs against Zimbabwe, and the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia at home, before the 2027 Men’s ODI World Cup takes centrestage.
