We wanted someone likely to be available more often: Agarkar on Surya as T20I captain

Rohit Sharma, who retired from T20 internationals after leading India to the World Cup triumph in the West Indies last month, will return as the skipper of the one-day international team.

BCCI Chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar with India’s new head coach Gautam Gambhir. | Photo Credit: Emmanual Yogini/The Hindu

The national selection committee’s decision to elevate Suryakumar Yadav as India’s T20I captain over Hardik Pandya did raise a few eyebrows, but the chairman of the committee, Ajit Agarkar, clarified that Suryakumar was chosen for the role as he was the deserving candidate.

“Why was Surya made the captain? Because he is one of the deserving candidates. The one we know has been around the dressing room over the last year and we got feedback from the dressing room too. He has got a good cricketing brain and he is still one of the best T20 batters in the world,” Agarkar said on Monday, insisting that the committee decided to appoint a captain who’s going to be available in the park ‘more often than not’.

“You (would) want a captain that’s going to be more likely to play all the games. We think he’s a deserving candidate and hopefully we’ll see over time how he develops into the role,” Agarkar said.

The chairman, however, clarified that he spoke to Hardik before going ahead with Suryakumar’s appointment. “He (Hardik) is still a very important player for us. We want him to be the player that he can be because those sorts of skill sets are very difficult to find,” Agarkar said. 

He added, “Fitness, obviously, has been a challenge for him over the last few years and then it becomes a little bit more difficult for him and even as selectors.”  

Injury has been a concern for Hardik over the last few years. After being injured in the ODI World Cup last year, he was out of action for months before featuring in the Indian Premier League for Mumbai Indians and eventually travelling to the USA and the West Indies for the T20 World Cup.

“We also feel we can manage Hardik better, we have seen what he can do with the bat and ball in the World Cup... We speak to every player, whether their role has changed. And yeah we’ve spoken to him…” he said.

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While Suryakumar had the backing of the selectors and the new coach Gautam Gambhir, the Mumbai batter is not being considered for ODIs at the moment as the ‘middle-order is packed with quality batters’.

Suryakumar Yadav was preferred over Hardik Pandya as India’s new T20I captain. | Photo Credit: VIJAY SONEJI/The Hindu

“We haven’t discussed Surya for ODIs at this point in time. Shreyas (Iyer) and KL (Rahul) are back and they had a great (ODI) World Cup. Rishabh (Pant) is back as well, so there is some real quality through that middle-order.”

With India featuring in just six ODIs before the Champions Trophy, scheduled to be held in February-March next year, a berth in the ODI side looks uncertain for Suryakumar unless, of course, he lets his willow do the talking in the Vijay Hazare Trophy.

Update on Gill, Shami

Agarkar also clarified that Shubman Gill was promoted as the vice-captain in the white-ball teams because he is a multi-format player, and also revealed that efforts are on to bring Mohammed Shami back on track for the Test series against Bangladesh in September.

“He has started to bowl. The first Test is on 19th September. That was always the goal [him making a comeback by that time]. Whether he can make it back to the squad by that time, I’ll have to speak with the guys at the NCA,” Agarkar said.

Shami, who was India’s stand-out performer in the ODI World Cup, has been out of action since last November and underwent surgery a couple of months ago. Over the last couple of weeks, he has resumed bowling in the nets as part of his rehabilitation process at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru.