MUMBAI: The Board of Control for Cricket in India held a lengthy review meeting of the just-concluded Border-Gavaskar series in Australia, which India lost 1-3, at the BCCI headquarters at a five-star hotel here on Saturday evening.
Indian captain Rohit Sharma, head coach Gautam Gambhir, who flew in from Delhi, and chief selector Ajit Agarkar were present for the meeting with top officials of the BCCI-president Roger Binny, jt secretary Devajit Saikia (currently discharging the functions of the secretary) and vice-president Rajiv Shukla being in attendance. Apparently, the meeting lasted for two-and-a-half hours, though it couldn’t be immediately learnt what transpired in it.
Agarkar was present in Australia for the entire duration of the BGT series as the touring selector.
While India are the reigning T20 World Cup champions, and 2023 ODI World Cup finalists, their fortunes have nosedived in Test cricket, where a 0-3 rout at home to New Zealand was followed by a 1-3 series defeat in Australia-their first to Autralia since 2014-15.
Off-spinner R Ashwin’s mid-tour retirement and return home, poor form of senior players-skipper Rohit Sharma pulled out of the final Test at Sydney while Virat Kohli has been in a prolonged slump- speculation of senior players being unhappy on tour, and off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin‘s mid-series return after suddenly announcing his retirement could all be up for discussion in the BCCI’s review meeting.
Post the meeting, the BCCI hosted a special party for the BCCI’s members to honour the cricket body’s previous secretary Jay Shah on becoming the new ICC Chair last month.
On Sunday, the Board’s Special General Meeting (SGM) is scheduled at the BCCI HQ, where Saikia will assume charge as the new BCCI secretary, while Prabhtej Singh Bhatia will be announced as the new treasurer.
Now, BCCI asks KL Rahul to play in ODI series against England
Meanwhile, the BCCI has asked India batter KL Rahul to turn out for the three-match ODI series against England at home on February, after initially deciding to rest him till the Champions Trophy, according to a reliable source.
“The selectors initially decided to rest Rahul, who plays in the middle order and is a wicketkeeper in the ODIs, from the entire white-ball series against England at home. However, they had a rethink and the BCCI has now asked him to play in the ODI series so that he gains some match practice ahead of the Champions Trophy in February,” the source said.
While he hasn’t been a part of India’s T20 side of late, Rahul has been India’s No 1 ‘keeper-batter in the ODIs where he has consistently scored runs in the middle-order.
After returning from Australia, where he featured in all the five Tests in a gruelling Border-Gavaskar Trophy series, Rahul had decided to opt out of the Karnataka squad for the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy knockouts, which began from Thursday in Vadodara.
