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The Committee of Administrators (CoA) on Thursday decided to change Indian cricket board's age-old rule of the secretary convening the selection committee meeting of the Indian team by handing the responsibility to the chief selector - currently MSK Prasad.
And that has seen the selection meeting to pick the team for the West Indies tour postponed by a day to Saturday.
Speaking to IANS, sources in the know of developments said that the directive of the CoA has led to a complete change of plan and that had led to a delay in the process.
"The change in the rule announced by the CoA means that the Secretary will not convene the meeting and that is behind the delay as that has leads to some complexities which need to be addressed," the source explained.
The CoA has decided that neither any officer bearer nor the CEO shall attend any Cricket Committee meetings henceforth. In fact, as of now, the Selection Committee had to keep the Secretary in the loop for any replacement sought or for posting of selectors to watch any game. The CoA has made it clear that the Selection Committee doesn't need to do so anymore.
Meanwhile, skipper Virat Kohli's availability and veteran Mahendra Singh Dhoni's future will be in focus when the national selection panel meets on Saturday to pick the Indian cricket squads for next month's tour of the West Indies.
The 38-year old Dhoni, whose finishing abilities with the bat has been on the wane, would be the centre of discussion amid speculation that the Jharkhand player is contemplating retirement even though he hasn't spoken about it till now. Dhoni's selection or omission would be an indicator of things to come in the future. India are set to play T20s, as many ODIs and two Tests in a full-fledged tour to the Caribbean islands, starting August 3.
Considering next year's T20 World Cup to be held in Australia, the selectors might opt for the young Rishabh Pant, who is seen as heir apparent to Dhoni.
Dhoni was dropped from the T20 series against West Indies and Australia last October and there is a strong chance that he won't be included this time around too. Pant was recently called up as replacement for an injured opener Shikhar Dhawan in the World Cup, from where India were ousted in the semifinal stage. Another issue that would surely be debated is the availability of Kohli, who has been on the road for a while.
There is a school of thought that the skipper could be rested considering the long domestic season ahead, which begins in September, and in this scenario Rohit Sharma could be handed captaincy for the shorter formats.
However, with the two Tests being part of the ICC Test Championship, Kohli could be included in the Test squad.
A similar approach could be taken for pacer Jasprit Bumrah.
The panel would also work on restructuring the middle-order as it was one of the primary reasons for India's exit from the World Cup semifinal. Stabilising the number four spot is the need of the hour going ahead.
It is expected that picking the middle-order could lead to the biggest debate as the panel has a few choices among Karnataka's Mayank Agarwal and Manish Pandey and Mumbai's Shreyas Iyer, who has been knocking the doors after scoring heavily in domestic cricket.
Pandey scored a match-winning 100 for India A against the West Indies A in an unofficial third ODI and after Ambati Rayudu's sudden retirement and Vijay Shankar's failure to nail the number four spot, the focus will be on the trio.
Also, the selectors may consider the talented young Punjab batsman Shubhman Gill and Mumbai's Prithvi Shaw. But Shaw's hip injury could come in the way of him being considered.
A determined Gill has been among the runs in the West Indies tour for India A. Gill and Shreyas could make the cut.
It could also be end of the road for the experienced Dinesh Karthik and Maharashtra all-rounder Kedar Jadhav, who failed to perform in the World Cup.
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