BCCI’s chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar on Monday pointed out that frequent injury breakdowns, and fitness concerns went against Hardik Pandya’s elevation as India’s next T20I skipper but stressed that he remains to be an integral part of the outfit.

Suryakumar Yadav was recently named the T20I skipper ahead of Pandya, who was the vice-captain of the T20 World Cup-winning side. The selectors also handed the vice-captaincy to Shubman Gill. Elaborating on the process of selecting the captain, Agarkar said that the selectors believed that “the captain should be on the park”.

“Why Surya was made the captain, because he is one of the deserving candidates. He’s been around the group over the last year, we get feedback from the dressing room a lot. (He has a) good cricket brain, and (is) one of the best T20 batters in the world,” Agarkar said.

“One of the main issues [discussed] was that you want a captain who’s likely to play all the games. We think he is a deserving candidate and hopefully we’ll see over time how he develops into the role,” he added.

Since the start of 2022, Hardik has featured in only 46 of the 79 T20Is India played. He suffered an ankle injury during the ODI World Cup in India last year, and was out of action till the start of IPL 2024. After a below-par IPL, Hardik roared back into form in the T20 World Cup, signing off with 144 runs at a strike rate of 151.57 and 11 wickets at an average of 17.36.

Agarkar explained that the decision to not burden him with captaincy will allow the team management to manage his workload better as he felt that Pandya is still an invaluable player for the national team.

“As far as Hardik is concerned, he is still a very important player. And that’s what we want him to be, those skillsets are hard to find. Fitness has been something that he’s struggled with. As selectors, it becomes difficult then. The thought behind it was that we want someone (as captain) who is likely to be available more.”

“We also feel we can manage Hardik better, we’ve seen what he can do with the bat and ball in the World Cup… We speak to every player, about whether their role has changed. And yeah we’ve spoken to him…”

Agarkar also made it clear that Suryakumar Yadav is solely being looked at as a T20I player for India after the return of KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant in the 50-over format.

Shubman being groomed as next captain

Agarkar revealed that there’s a thought among the selectors that going forward Shubman Gill could take charge of the team, and thus he has been made the vice-captain of the side. The Punjab opener recently led a second-string India side to a 4-1 win against Zimbabwe, and while his place in the Test and ODI sides are certain, he could also be the preferred opener in T20Is post Rohit’s retirement.

“Shubman is the guy, we feel. He’s a three-format player, seems to show a lot more qualities over the last year or so that we hear from the dressing room. That’s why we want to have somebody who can learn from the senior guys – Surya in this instance and Rohit, who is still around,” Agarkar explained.

“(Shubman) has shown some decent leadership qualities, and we want to try him to get experiences. There are no guarantees but at this point, that’s the thought,” he added.

Samson – unfortunate to miss out of ODIs

Despite scoring a century in his last ODI – against South Africa, Sanju Samson found himself out of the ODI side against Sri Lanka, as the selectors recalled KL Rahul as the first-choice keeper after a successful World Cup last year, and Rishabh Pant named as the back-up gloveman.

Agarkar said that Samson was unfortunate to have missed out but the selectors wanted to test Rishabh for the first time in 50 overs ever since his return from the car crash in December 2022.

“Before his unfortunate (car) accident, (Rishabh) has been a key player for us. KL has been terrific in one-day cricket and had a great World Cup. Unfortunately, someone had to miss out, and in this instance, it was Sanju. These guys will have to keep getting runs and performing otherwise you know there is a quality player waiting. With a big Test season coming up, we feel these two will have a huge role to play. To get Rishabh playing 50 overs will be a step forward, hopefully he’ll build on what he’s done so far,” the former India pacer explained.

Jadeja not dropped

Agarkar also cleared the air on the future of Ravindra Jadeja, who announced his retirement from T20Is along with Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli right after the T20 World Cup win in Barbados, last month. The chief selector said that Jadeja “was not dropped” from the ODI set-up, but was left out to give opportunities to Axar Patel.

“It would have been really pointless to take both him and Axar for this short series. We know what Jaddu has done. He’s had a terrific World Cup. All options are open. But there was (a chance that only) one of them would have played all three games if we had taken both,” Agarkar said.

There’s also a second school of thought as far as Jadeja is concerned. India are scheduled to play 10 Tests—five at home and five in Australia—from September 2023 to January 2024, and they are looking to keep Jadeja, who is 35 and has missed a number of matches with injury over the last three years, as fresh as possible for those matches.

“There’s a big Test season coming up where he’s likely to feature in a lot of the Tests. I don’t think three games would have mattered. So, no, (he is) not at all dropped,” Agarkar made it clear.

Shami’s return for Bangladesh series?

The chairman of selectors also gave an update on Mohammed Shami, who has been recuperating from an ankle surgery and is out of action ever since the ODI World Cup. “He has started to bowl. The first Test (against Bangladesh) is September 19. That was always the goal (him making a comeback by that time). Whether he can make it back to the squad by that time, I’ll have to speak with the guys at the NCA.”

Test players in Duleep Trophy

Keeping in sync with the BCCI’s diktat of international players playing domestic cricket when not on India duty, Agarkar said some of India’s Test players are likely to play the first Duleep Trophy game this season. The Duleep Trophy will be held between September 5 and 22 in Anantpur.

“We haven’t discussed with Gautam yet – it’s not always easy – but there will certainly be enough players out of that squad that are likely to play the first (Duleep Trophy) game at least,” he said.