India team selection style quite interesting, slightly disturbing

Each leadership group has its own style of player selection. When I say leadership group I mean the captain of the Indian team, the coach and the chairman of selectors.

- Sanjay Manjrekar

In the time when Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri were captain and coach, the squad had the look of what the selection committee wanted, but the playing XI was completely the domain of Virat and Shastri.

Shastri being an extremely compliant coach to the captain, the playing XI was basically Virat's.

This management picked the most unpredictable playing XI I have seen. Under Rahul Dravid, Rohit Sharma, and Ajit Agarkar as chairman of selectors, the controllables were handled the best I thought. The only big blunder this team leadership may have made was the surface they chose to play Australia in the 2023 World Cup final.

In the current leadership of Agarkar and Gautam Gambhir with a new captain obviously having the least say, I am seeing a style of selection which is quite interesting and slightly disturbing.

Under Gambhir's stewardship and with Rohit not there anymore, I see a tendency in this management to pre-empt performances of individuals while making selections. As in, the dominating thought here is to apply their own view of the likely success and failure of players depending on conditions and opposition.