New Delhi: Former batsman Sanjay Manjrekar is not in line with Sunil Gavaskar questioning the role of selection committee and the continuation of Virat Kohli as India captain following the team’s World Cup exit in the semi-finals.
Gavaskar has questioned why Kohli has automatically continued in his position as skipper even though his appointed ended with the showpiece event in England and Wales.
However, Manjrekar doesn’t agree with Gavaskar’s observations. On Monday, he tweeted: “Respectfully disagree with Gavaskar Sir with his views on Indian selectors and Virat being retained as captain. No, India did not put in a ‘much below par WC performance’, they won 7 lost two. Last one very narrowly. And integrity a far more important quality as selector than stature.”
Gavaskar has said that there should have been a formal meeting to re-appoint Kohli, who has been named captain across all the three formats for the Windies tour that starts with T20I .
“That they selected the team for West Indies without first having a meeting to select the captain brings up the question of whether Virat Kohli is the captain of the team at his or the selection committee’s pleasure,” Gavaskar wrote.
“To the best of our knowledge his (Kohli’s) appointment was till the World Cup. After that, it was incumbent on the selectors to meet even if it was for five minutes for his reappointment,” he added.
Gavaskar also went ahead and questioned the way Kohli is getting his choice of team. The 70-year-old further termed the M.S.K Prasad-led selection committee as “lame ducks”.
“Speaking of lame ducks, the Indian selection committee appears to be one. After the reappointment, he (captain) gets invited to the meeting for his views on the selecting the players for the team. By bypassing the procedure, the message that goes out is that while the players like Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik get dropped after below expectation performance, the captain continues despite much below par expectations where the team did not even reach the finals,” Gavaskar said.
Certain sections in the BCCI have also been vocal that splitting the captaincy could be a way forward for the Indian team as they now look to plan for the 2023 World Cup.
