World Cup 2019: Former BCCI secretary Sanjay Jagdale shares his views on India's squad selection
What's the story?
The Indian team’s failure to make it to the final of ICC World Cup 2019 raised a bunch of questions circling around the selection committee. The poor form of the middle order batsmen throughout the tournament landed the selection panel in worries.
With reference to this, former BCCI secretary Sanjay Jagdale stated that the selectors backed the wrong set of players and even added that Ambati Rayudu and Dinesh Karthik failed despite the many chances that came their way.
In case you didn't know
India’s 2019 World Cup campaign ended on 10th July 2019 as they lost by an 18-run margin against New Zealand. The middle order muddle was yet again singled out as the reason for the loss, with a number of players tried out for the No.4 spot but without much success.
The panel initially backed KL Rahul to do well at No 4 until an unfortunate injury to Shikhar Dhawan forced Rahul to take up the opening position. All-rounder Vijay Shankar was brought in to fill the spot but it did not prove to be a great decision for the side. Vijay Shankar's injury brought Rishabh Pant into the equation as the southpaw was given a shot at that position as well.
The heart of the matter
Sanjay Jagdale, who has also served as one of the selectors of the Indian team in the past, was quoted by the Indian Express saying, ‘'They (selection committee) kept on experimenting with Vijay Shankar, Ambati Rayudu, Dinesh Karthik. Karthik has been playing since 2003 when I was a selector. Rayudu also. You can’t pick teams on the basis of the IPL performance. You need players who have performed well outside the sub-continent.’
He added that he was really shocked when Rishabh Pant missed out on a spot. He felt sorry for the likes of Manish Pandey and Shreyas Iyer but Jagdale revealed that he did not feel bad for Rayudu and Karthik as they had received enough chances to make a mark.
Stressing on the fact that the selection committee was backing the wrong players., the former secretary shed light on the fact that Manish Pandey scored a century in Australia and yet he did not get many chances to feature as a specialist batsman.
What's next?
With India's World Cup 2019 campaign coming to an end, the Men in Blue will tour West Indies in August. With key players set to be rested, it will be interesting to see the composition of the squad, with a number of young players slated to earn a spot for the upcoming series.
Also see – Dream 11 predictions
Follow Sportskeeda for all the updates on World Cup schedule, points table, news, World Cup most runs, live scores, most runs, most wickets and fantasy tips.