Former Indian cricketer Ajit Agarkar is set to take over as India's senior men's team chief selector. On July 4, Agarkar interviewed for the position online from England. Agarkar is also likely to chair the selection committee meeting which is schedule to take place on July 5, a source told Sports Tak.
Agarkar recently his post as assistant coach in Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Delhi Capitals. Earlier, it was learnt that Agarkar had reservations about the remuneration. However, BCCI is likely to increase the remuneration to accommodate Agarkar.
This is not the first time Agarkar had applied for the selector's post. In 2021, he was one of the candidates as well but North Zone's Chetan Sharma became the head of the panel. But a sting operation of Chetan led to him stepping down from the post earlier this year. In his absence, Shiv Sunder Das was named interim chief of selectors.
As Agarkar takes over the top job, his first order of business will be to select the T20I side that will play five-T20I series on Caribbean soil from August 3 to August 13. The likes of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have not played a single T20I since India’s loss in T20 World Cup 2022 semi-final to England in Australia. It will be interesting to see if they make it back to the squad or Hardik Pandya continues to lead a young squad.
While Rohit had a lacklustre IPL season as Mumbai Indians (MI) captain, Kohli found his form as 639 runs from 14 games at an average of 53.25 including two centuries and six half-centuries.
Agarkar’s numbers
The Mumbai-born all-rounder made his international debut in April 1988. He has played 26 Tests, 191 ODIs and four T20Is. He has a total of 359 wickets to his name at the international stage. With 288 wickets in ODIs, he is India's third-highest wicket-taker in the format till date and unlikely to be surpassed soon.
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