Here we are in the third week of January, with four podcasters and a writer, bringing you some amazing cricket content! We are the ‘State of Cricket’ podcast from Cricket Huddle! There are some spicy topics to go over today, and we lead off with the state of Indian cricket. We want to get to the bottom of who is actually in charge of Indian cricket, the BCCI or the team management. Additionally, is an ICC trophy just a dream for India or can it be a realistic, achievable goal? Let’s get the party started and see what the crew thinks!

We think that Indian cricket is in a terrible state at the moment. India can win bilateral series easily but end up falling short during international tournaments. The player selections for certain series have been confusing, and we even previously mentioned in an earlier episode that it seems that selectors and coaches have not been able to differentiate between formats. A lack of a pure batting and bowling all-rounder is also a key issue talent-wise. The politics of BCCI and Indian cricket will also always further complicate any matter.

I hope, if there is even one takeaway from this episode, that the Indian selectors can realize that picking Lokesh Rahul in games during tournaments will NOT result in a victory in the end overall! If you haven’t picked this up yet, we absolutely DISLIKE Lokesh Rahul (Rupayan included). It seems like the BCCI is sticking to their plan of not playing Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma in T20s as much, even if Sharma has declared himself available. The only issue with this “decree” is they still continue to play Rahul, even going as far as giving him leadership roles so as to make him seem undroppable. Please include Rahul’s name on the list of players to take away opportunities from. End this fallacy!*

In other news, the new BCCI national selection committee has been finalized and, for some reason, Chetan Sharma is still back to lead the panel again… So, what was the purpose of sacking the previous committee led by him only to reappoint him back as the head of this new committee? The crew is a bit disappointed that someone like Venkatesh Prasad, who was considered a frontrunner, did not ultimately make the 13-man shortlist among several other notable candidates. As for the remaining topics, we explore how a lack of resource management is why the #1-ranked T20I team in the world cannot end up winning an actual trophy despite the ranking. We also came up with 15-man rosters (openers, middle-order batters, bowlers) we would want for the Test (for the Australia series and the WTC) and ODI (for the ODI WC) squads.

We also wanted to go above and beyond our normal team selections by picking who we think should be part of the centrally contracted players as well. However, this hypothetical exercise was canceled on the account of the A+ grade players being made available to only guaranteed starters on all three formats. Due to the five takeaways from the last BCCI meeting, workload management has rendered three-format players almost null and void. A better way to handle contracts would be to keep them confidential so as to not create controversy. We also end with the off-the-field behavior of players and how we imagine the WTC and the Australia series will play out.

*Disclaimer #1: Despite this, some of us have had to pick Rahul as a part of our personal team selections, as has been able to at least do something right in Test cricket. It is better to have that form and experience in a series against the likes of the Aussies, who (if all goes right) we might end up facing again in the WTC final.*

*Disclaimer #2: Subroto Banerjee is, in fact, not the Central Zone representative. Actually, the crew switched places between Shiv Sunder Das (the actual Central Zone representative) and Banerjee, who is the actual East Zone representative. Here is the list of zones from where the selectors were picked from.*

*Disclaimer #3: One of the members of the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) is named Sulakshana Naik.*

If you are interested in the rest of the conversation, please check out the links below: