The new head coach of Indian T20I Rahul Dravid has started another Anil Kumble-era policy. Players who are going out of the team due to fitness and out of form will be eligible for team selection after they play domestic cricket. This practice stopped during Ravi Shastri’s era but now it will be back again.
The reason behind this is Hardik Pandya’s selection failure.
During Anil Kumble’s tenure, BCCI had this rule ‘play domestic, prove yourself and come back’. During Shastri’s tenure, the practice could not be followed because there were back to back matches. As per reports Rahul Dravid has clearly stated that the players are supposed to domestic cricket especially the players who play Test cricket.
A senior BCCI official in his statement said “The policy was always there but it wasn’t strictly followed in the last few years. Rahul has made it mandatory for players to play in domestic cricket barring multi-format players. It’s very simple, if you are injured and recover, you have to play in domestic to prove that you are completely fit,”
Why Rahul Dravid thinks its important for players to play domestic cricket?
IPL has always been the selection criteria for Test cricket but won’t be taken into consideration any further. The Hardik Pandya injury debacle has been analysed by BCCI and they aren’t happy with the result. Rahul Dravid wants to ensure that the players coming after an injury leaves are completely fit. For Hardik Pandya, he doesn’t play the Vijay Hazare Trophy so for selection it’s mandatory that he plays Ranji Trophy for selection in the ODI squad for the South Africa tour.
As per reports, Hardik Pandya is thinking of his Test retirement after he struggled with his bowling for the past two years. The Indian team management clearly stated that Hardik Pandya must be fit to bowl a quota of overs if he desires to be selected. He’s now on a break but hopefully, he will have a strong comeback.
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