Knee-jerk reaction unlikely as BCCI officials meet Rohit, Gambhir for Australia series review meeting
Knee-jerk reaction unlikely as BCCI officials meet Rohit, Gambhir for Australia series review meeting
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) held a long meeting with India captain Rohit Sharma, head coach Gautam Gambhir and chairman of the national selection committee Ajit Agarkar on Saturday to discuss the road ahead, following India’s embarrassing 1-3 defeat in the recently-concluded Test series against Australia.
The meeting that continued for nearly three hours at a plush South Mumbai hotel saw the BCCI’s secretary-in-waiting Devajit Saikia and former secretary Jay Shah engaging in conversation with the team management to figure out what went wrong on tour, where India went on to concede the five-match Test series despite going one-up in Perth.
However, sources indicate that a knee-jerk reaction is unlikely and with the Champions Trophy just a month away, there were no talks of changing any support staff. Rohit and Virat Kohli, both, are set to be part of the Champions Trophy squad, with the former leading the team.
But keeping the heavy workload in mind, there were discussions on the role of coaching staff going forward and opinions were sought in terms of how to handle the transition of the longer format in a phased manner.
The last few months have been challenging for the Indian team as it lost the Test series against New Zealand at home and then ended up suffering a series defeat against Australia. “All the three members put forward their plans for the future and it was a discussion on how to plan things in the right direction, going forward,” a source indicated.
Apart from the meeting, all the state unit officials gathered for Shah’s felicitation by the BCCI for having been elected as the International Cricket Council chair. Even the head of the National Cricket Academy, VVS Laxman, also joined the gathering.
In the evening, the five-member selection committee also had deliberations over the Champions Trophy squad. It is expected that the squad could be formally announced in a week or so after sending in the provisional squad to the International Cricket Council within the set deadline.
The Champions Trophy is scheduled to begin on February 19 and will be played in Pakistan and the UAE.
