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New Delhi, July 18
The national selection panel's meeting to pick squads for the West Indies tour has been pushed to Sunday amid intense focus on skipper Virat Kohli's availability and MS Dhoni's future.
The meeting was scheduled for Friday but was postponed following Committee of Administrators' (CoA) directive that the chairman of the panel, instead of BCCI secretary, will convene it. "There are some legal modalities that need to be followed due to the rule change and it took some time. Also the BCCI's cricket operations team needs to apprise the chairman of the availability of the captain for the meeting. The fitness reports of the players will be available on Saturday evening," a BCCI official said.
The 38-year old Dhoni would be the centre of discussion amid speculation that the Jharkhand player is contemplating retirement even though he hasn't spoken about it till now. Dhoni's selection or omission would be an indicator of things to come in the future. India are set to play three T20Is, as many ODIs and two Tests in a full-fledged tour to the Caribbean islands, starting August 3.
Considering next year's T20 World Cup to be held in Australia, the selectors might opt for Rishabh Pant, who is seen as the heir apparent to Dhoni.
Dhoni was dropped from the T20 series against West Indies and Australia last October and there is a strong chance that he won't be included this time around too. Pant was recently called up as a replacement for an injured opener Shikhar Dhawan in the World Cup.
Another issue that would surely be debated is the availability of Kohli, who has been on the road for a while. There is a school of thought that the skipper could be rested considering the long domestic season ahead, which begins in September, and in this scenario, Rohit Sharma could be handed captaincy for the shorter formats. However, with the two Tests being part of the ICC Test Championship, Kohli could be included in the Test squad. A similar approach could be taken for pacer Jasprit Bumrah. The MSK Prasad-led panel would also work on restructuring the middle-order as it was one of the primary reasons for India's exit from the World Cup semifinal. Picking the middle-order could lead to a big debate as the panel has a few choices among Karnataka's Mayank Agarwal, Manish Pandey and Mumbai's Shreyas Iyer.
Shubman in reckoning
The selectors may consider Punjab batsman Shubman Gill and Mumbai's Prithvi Shaw. But Shaw's hip injury could come in the way of him being considered. Gill has been among the runs in the West Indies tour for India A. It could also be end of the road for Dinesh Karthik and Kedar Jadhav, who failed to perform in the World Cup. If Dhawan is deemed fit, he would, in all probability, open with Rohit.
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