Fitness and availability for all matches was the reason why the national selectors opted for Suryakumar Yadav as captain of the Indian team for the T20I series against Sri Lanka instead of senior all-rounder Hardik Pandya, who has led the side on many occasions so far and is more experienced compared to Surya.

While clarifying that SKY is a deserving candidate and has shown good leadership qualities besides being a premier T20I batter in the world, Agarkar said their main concern was to check out different set of leaders as part of a succession plan as Rohit Sharma has decided to quit the shortest format of the game following India’s triumph in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024.

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“He’s one of the deserving candidates, one we know who has been around the group over the last year. We get feedback from the dressing room a lot. He’s got a good cricket brain. He’s still one of the best T20 batters in the world. One of the main issues obviously was you want a captain that’s going to or likely to play all the games. I mean, we think he’s a deserving candidate and hopefully, we’ll see over time how he develops into the role,” Agarkar said at the team’s pre-departure press conference ahead of their tour of Sri Lanka for three T20Is and as many ODIs.

Agarkar, the chairman of the senior selection committee of the BCCI, attended the press conference along with newly-appointed chief coach Gautam Gambhir. The team will be leaving tonight for the series that starts on July 27 with the T20Is followed by Rohit Sharma taking over as captain of the ODI squad.

While he said that Surya was picked as captain because he deserved it, Agarkar added that Hardik Pandya is still an important player in the team considering the unique skills that he brings to the table. He said the selectors also want to manage Hardik’s workload through this.

“As regards Hardik, I mean, as he’s still a very important player for us and that’s what we want him to be, that player that he can be, because those sorts of skill sets are very difficult to find what he has.

“Fitness obviously has been a challenge for him over the last few years and then it becomes a little bit more difficult for say a coach or even us as selectors when you’re trying to pick a captain. Now we’ve got a bit more time till the next T20 World Cup and we can look at a few things.

“It’s not rushed at the moment, and we want him to be, like I said, he’s an important player for us and hopefully his performances are more important. And that was the thought behind it. Fitness is a clear challenge and you want someone who’s likely to be available more often than not. And after saying all that, we think Surya’s got the necessary qualities that you need to succeed as a captain,” said Agarkar.

Pandya has suffered a few injuries in recent times and only plays white-ball cricket. His recent injury came at a crucial juncture of the 50-over World Cup last year in which India went on to lose to Australia in the final. Pandya also did not have a good IPL 2024 too.

Agarkar also said that the selectors will sit down with chief coach Gambhir after the Sri Lanka tour and work out plans for the future.

Meanwhile, Gambhir talked about his approach towards coaching with the team and said his focus will be on giving freedom to the players and having a “happy dressing room”.

He said for him, a happy dressing room was more important because that would keep the players satisfied and then they could express themselves more freely on the field.

Agarkar and Gambhir also talked about managing the workload of the players as India faces a busy schedule ahead with around 10 Test matches in 12 months besides some white-ball series.

The former India pacer, Agarkar, also asked about the rationale behind picking Shubman Gill as vice-captain of the T20I and ODI teams by superseding KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant. He said Rahul has not played enough T20Is in recent times. The selectors also wanted to have more options at hand for the future and that was the reason they did not fall back on the tried and tested hands.

Agarkar said Pant has come back from a long injury lay and has not played enough matches. He said the selectors did not want to burden him too much at this early stage of his return. Pant has had a successful Indian Premier League (IPL) season and played a key role in India’s triumph in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup last month.

While the selection of Suryakumar as captain of the T20I team seems to be a course correction by the selection committee led by Agarkar, the former India pacer also said they have not closed the door on anyone and players that do well in the domestic circuit can back in their previous roles.

Asked about players like Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma and Ruturaj Gaikwad who have been dropped for the Sri Lanka tour despite being part of the previous series, Agarkar said the players picked ahead of them too deserved their place in the squad.

“I mean, every player who’s left out feels hard done by. Our challenge is to pick only 15 to try and get the best balance. So someone’s likely to miss out sometimes. They’ve had some recent performances in recent times, but you got to see who’s picked ahead of them. I mean, are those guys not deserving of their place?

“If that’s the thing, then there are things to discuss. But at this stage, I mean, we had an opportunity to give some of those guys, you know, a go in the Zimbabwe series, which was good. So we have enough depth. If tomorrow there’s loss of form from the players that are playing or there are injuries it’s tough,” said Agarkar.

He took the example of Rinku, who missed out on a place in the T20 World Cup despite some brilliant performances in the IPL.

“I mean, Rinku, for no fault of his, missed out on the World Cup. He had a terrific T20 leading up to the World Cup, but it’s sometimes just the way it goes. Unfortunately for us as well, it’s difficult to fit everyone in the 15. And as tough as it is for the player, that’s generally the life of a player. That’s why when you get an opportunity, you try and put up performances.

“So as soon as somebody who’s ahead of you is not quite up to the mark or doesn’t, or there’s an injury there, you’re ready to fix and you could take a lot of names. You’ve taken three names, there are a lot of names and it’s tough on them. But that’s just the reality. We can only pick 15,” said Agarkar.