India might have won the T20 World Cup earlier this year, but one cannot deny the team’s struggles in Tests. While the fortunes in white-ball formats have gotten better under head coach Gautam Gambhir, a lot has been left to be desired in the longest format. India are no longer unbeatable at home after losing to New Zealand and South Africa. It would be an uphill task, and India’s chances of reaching the final of the World Test Championship (WTC) are slim. However, at last, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has taken note of the situation, and the work is finally going to begin to once again make the side a force to reckon with in red-ball cricket.
According to news agency PTI, the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence (CoE) under the guidance of VVS Laxman has chalked out an extensive plan that will see promising young stars such as Ayush Mhatre and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi play four-day red-ball games in an intra-CoE tournament in June-July.
The aim is to identify and build a supply chain to ensure India’s red-ball talent is ready for the next decade. The intra-COE tournament will feature 64 of the top young cricketers, all aged under 25.
The same PTI report stated that all coaches and national selectors have been told that the focus in the next year for most High Performance Camps in Bengaluru will be to get the talent pool on track, with an eye on the near and distant future.
“The India Emerging side will comprise of only U-25 players and they will also constitute India A teams for shadow tours also. The roadmap will be created keeping senior chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar, head coach Gautam Gambhir in the loop,” a BCCI source told PTI.
“Once the IPL ends, India U-19 and Emerging (U-25) will both tour Sri Lanka for four-day games. The squad will be selected based on Intra-COE tournament performances,” the source added.
The plan for Test cricket
Ever since Gambhir took over, India have struggled in Test cricket. Yes, the series was played in England, but the ability to play spin has really deteriorated, and this has been the major reason India has struggled to win matches on home soil.
Keeping the struggles in mind, a plan has been made to select 64 players and divide them into four squads of 16 each. Each team will play two four-day red-ball games at the COE, and different pitch conditions will be offered to give all teams proper match practice.
25 cricketers (U-23) will be selected by the junior selection committee headed by S Sharath. Another 25 cricketers (U-23 and U-25) will be selected by the senior selection committee, comprising those who performed exceptionally well in the Ranji Trophy, Vijay Hazare Trophy, and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT). However, the players selected from these tournaments, would be those who didn’t feature in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Apart from these 50 cricketers, there will be another 14 players, mainly those who featured in the IPL, including Mhatre, Sooryavanshi, and Sameer Rizvi.
“The idea is to select 25 after the intra-COE tourney, and this core group of cricketers will represent both Emerging and India A in shadow tours. The BCCI brass and Team India management is pretty clear — even for U-19s, the focus for next one year has to be red ball,” the source said.
