Many eyebrows were raised over India’s selection for the Sri Lanka tour, more so after missing out on in-form players such as Sanju Samson, Ruturaj Gaikwad, and Abhishek Sharma. Chief selector Ajit Agarkar took the brunt of those questions at a press conference before the team’s departure. Agarkar said that accommodating all the deserving guys in a squad of 15 isn’t easy.

The trio of Sanju Samson, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Abhishek Sharma had all impressed during India’s recent tour of Zimbabwe. Abhishek even smashed a century in the T20I series, with Gaikwad delivering consistent scores in the middle order. Samson was surprisingly left out of the ODI squad for Sri Lanka after a hundred in his last ODI outing.

Agarkar faced these omissions directly. He said, whoever gets left out, obviously he will feel disappointed, but for the selection committee, the biggest challenge is to get the best possible combination of 15 players who can form a balanced team. And automatically, some deserving players will be left out.

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“Are those guys not deserving of their place?” he challenged rhetorically, begging the question in the reporters’ minds with regard to the credentials of the players who were chosen ahead of the overlooked trio. Ajit Agarkar wasn’t shying away from difficult questions.

According to Ajit agarkar,for getting Rishab ready for big test season he had to sit out Sanju Samson from the Odi side 🤡 #BCCI #SanjuSamson #injustice #favoritsm pic.twitter.com/dyNhb6MUjW

— MUHAMMED IMRAN (@MUHAMME57535345) July 22, 2024

He cited Rinku Singh as an example of the challenge the selection committee is facing. Rinku Singh was in red-hot form going into the T20 World Cup, but he eventually didn’t make it to the final squad. According to Agarkar, this is an example of the hard choices that have to be made.

Ajit Agarkar did find a silver lining. He pointed out the recent series against Zimbabwe as an excellent opportunity to try out some of the fringe players to see if they can really make it big, thereby strengthening India’s batting line and also providing backup against loss due to injury or lack of form of frontline batsmen.

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While empathizing with those left out, the message was clear from Ajit Agarkar’s side: tough calls need to be taken when it comes to selection, and the focus remains on fielding the best possible team combination for each series, factoring current form and balance of squads.