After BCCI dissolves national selectors’ role in picking zonal teams, sanctity of the tournament comes under scanner
CHENNAI/NEW DELHI: A few days before the Duleep Trophy got underway at the Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru on Sunday, BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia announced that the final will be shifted to MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. The reason given was that there will be fans who will come to watch the match, which doesn’t happen in the CoE. Chennai is a cricket-crazy centre. But when you ask those who ‘book’ their IPL tickets long before the event, whether they would be interested in attending the Duleep final, the standard query is: “Will Shubman Gill play?”
Gill, in this case, stands for all the stars of Indian cricket. The Duleep final is from Sept 6-10, and it will be interesting to see that those who are not part of the Afghanistan T20 series starting on Sept 12 turn out at MAC. That said, the primary purpose of the inter-zonal tournament is to check out the best performers in the Ranji Trophy go head-to-head against each other. The relevance of the tournament, especially after the inception of IPL, has diminished drastically. Yet, it remains a stepping stone for a lot of players.
The tournament’s sanctity has been up for debate with the selection process. The BCCI, in the last decade, has often tried playing the tournament with national selectors picking the India ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ teams. This year, the board has reverted to the inter-zonal format and has kept the national selectors out of the equation. The result? Delhi opener Sanat Sangwan, who scored 828 runs in seven Ranji Trophy matches, was on Sunday, benched by the North Zone management and instead middle-order batter Yash Dhull was played as an opener. The Central Zone team has only one player from semifinalist Uttarakhand while Madhya Pradesh was the only team from the zone to have qualified for the quarterfinals. There have been a few debatable selections in the South Zone team as well.
Former national selector Devang Gandhi believes that a national selector has to be involved in the selection process if the sanctity of the tournament is to be saved. “When we were selectors from 2016-2021, BCCI had given us the responsibility of picking the Duleep Trophy to maintain continuity in a player’s development. If the opener with the highest runs in the country doesn’t get to play Duleep Trophy, it defeats the purpose of the tournament. The board must at least ensure one selector from each zone is present in planning their respective zonal teams. Otherwise, politics at the state association level can crop up. There’s no accountability if BCCI selectors are not used,” Gandhi told TOI.
“Today we are seeing Manav Suthar and Saransh Jain as products of domestic cricket. If that structure is compromised, then it will be difficult to see such journeys,” Gandhi added. TOI understands that the selection committee has been asking for a greater role in Duleep Trophy teams. The board had given the Ajit Agarkar-led committee the responsibility for the last two years before handing complete authority to state associations in the zone. For selectors, Duleep is a tournament from where players for India ‘A’ are selected. In this case, Australia ‘A’ will come to India in October and those who are part of this Duleep, will look to stake a claim in the ‘A’ side. It is definitely a step lower for the established stars and there’s not much to prove for them, unless it’s just a test of fitness, as is the case for Washington Sundar or Sai Sudharsan, who are coming back from injuries. In recent times, we have often seen T20 performances have often been the benchmark for red-ball selection. Ajinkya Rahane came back into India’s WTC Final squad in 2023 on the basis of a great IPL while Sai Sudharsan’s entry into the Test squad has largely been due to his consistency in IPL for Gujarat Titans.
When we look at the East Zone squad that took on NorthEast from Sunday, we see Vaibhav Sooryavanshi being named as the vice-captain ahead of Abhimanyu Easwaran. The Bengal opener has an average of 47.85 over 112 games while Sooryavanshi averages 17.25 in the eight games that he has played.
While it can raise a few eyebrows, Gandhi says it’s “a question of backing talent”. “Nothing against Abhimanyu, but we all know what Vaibhav brings to the table. He is one for the future with incredible talent and what’s the harm if he is put in the leadership group at a young age. The selectors will know how he reacts to it,” Gandhi said.
