Former India captain and selector Dilip Vengsarkar was left surprised by Shreyas Iyer’s selection as the men’s ODI team’s vice-captain for the upcoming tour of Australia. Vengsaskar commented that he didn’t
understand how Iyer, who took a break from red-ball cricket, could declare himself fit for the white-ball formats.
Iyer wrote to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), asking for permission to recuse himself from red-ball cricket for six months. The BCCI said Iyer faces back spasms when playing in the longest format and wants to use the time of domestic red-ball cricket to work on his fitness and progress his recovery from a long-standing back issue.
“To be honest, it’s a dilemma for me, because he [Iyer] says that he is unfit for red-ball cricket, but is fit for the white-ball cricket,” Vengsarkar told Mid-day. “I don’t understand the difference between red-ball cricket and white-ball cricket. I feel that if you are fit for white-ball cricket, you are obviously fit for red-ball cricket too. Choosing red-ball or white-ball and such things are beyond my comprehension,” he added.
The other two key decisions for the series, which begins on October 19, were the promotion of Shubman Gill as the captain and the continuation of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma despite not playing any competitive cricket in months.
“Gill is a very good all-format player. Actually, when you pick a captain, you first pick the team and then you pick the best available guy to lead the side. And I think Gill is the best person to lead the side in ODIs and Test matches because he is also good in T20s,” Vengsarkar said.
He added, with concern, “Rohit and Virat have been great players over the years, but if you are playing just one format of the game, I believe the selectors need to take a call on this. I feel you cannot know or judge the form and fitness of such players because they’ve had a long layoff after the last game they have played. It’s very difficult to assess their form and fitness.”
