The Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) Centre of Excellence (COE) led by VVS Laxman, has planned a detailed roadmap to rebuild India’s red-ball cricket after the team's five home Test defeats against New Zealand in 2024 and South Africa in 2025.
The plan focuses on young players, or the ‘Gen Z’ crop, including promising names like Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Ayush Mhatre, who will get to play four-day red-ball games in an intra-COE tournament scheduled for June-July.
The tournament will feature 64 of India’s best cricketers under the age of 25. The aim is to identify talent and create a strong pipeline to strengthen India’s red-ball game for the next decade.
All coaches and selectors associated with the COE, including senior, pathways (India A, India U-23), and age-group (U-19, U-16) teams, have been told that the focus over the next year, especially during High Performance Camps in Bengaluru, will be on building a robust pool of red-ball talent.
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"The India Emerging side will comprise of only U-25 players and they will also constitute India A teams for shadow tours also. The roadmap will be created keeping senior chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar, head coach Gautam Gambhir in loop."
"Once the IPL ends, India U-19 and Emerging (U-25) will both tour Sri Lanka for four-day games. The squad will be selected based on Intra-COE tournament performances" as quoted by news agency PTI
How Teams Will Be Selected
The 64 players will be split into four squads of 16. Each team will play two four-day red-ball games at the COE. Different pitch conditions will be used so players get proper match practice.
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Out of the 64, 25 cricketers under 23 will be chosen by the junior selection committee, led by S Sharath, from those who performed well in the Cooch Behar (U-19) and CK Nayudu (U-22) red-ball events.
Another 25 players (U-23 and U-25) will be picked by the senior selection committee. They will come from cricketers who have performed in the Ranji Trophy, Vijay Hazare Trophy, and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy but are not part of the IPL.
The remaining 14 spots will go to young IPL stars, such as Ayush Mhatre, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, and Sameer Rizvi as long as they are fit and available.
"The idea is to select 25 after the intra-COE tourney and this core group of cricketers will represent both Emerging and India A in shadow tours. The BCCI brass and Team India management is pretty clear -- even for U-19s, the focus for next one year has to be red ball" BCCI source added.