Asia Cup 2025: Too many options? India selectors face a happy headache

NEW DELHI: The Indian selectors are scheduled to choose the team for next month’s Asia Cup on Tuesday. Over the past twelve months, India’s T20 team had been largely forgotten as Test cricket remained in the spotlight and the ODI format became a priority briefly because of the ICC Champions Trophy.

However, the focus is now firmly on T20 cricket ahead of the T20 World Cup to be co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka in Feb and March. Ajit Agarkar’s selection committee faces a challenging task.

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The process is similar to when they selected the team for the previous T20 World Cup in 2024. With the IPL expanding each year, India’s pool of players has seen huge growth. As debates continue over who should be included in India’s T20 squad travelling to the UAE in the first week of Sept, the IPL’s role in developing a strong pool of T20 players cannot be overlooked.

In 2021, the BCCI made a notable statement by confidently fielding a white-ball team in Sri Lanka despite 18 cricketers being in England for a Test series.

Currently, social media platforms often feature pages listing multiple playing XIs in T20s. Impact of scouts in leagues A review of the current pool of players reveals that prominent names were discovered by IPL teams. The emergence of Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah and Sanju Samson dates back to over a decade.

Varun Chakravarthy is perhaps the top example of intensive scouting. Tilak Varma and Abhishek Sharma’s rapid rise highlights how IPL franchises supported them despite modest domestic performances. The scouting teams of IPL franchises reach areas where the BCCI’s regular selectors may find it difficult.

Tanmay Shrivastava, who was part of Virat Kohli’s U-19 World Cup-winning team in 2008, is now retired and has served as a scout for Royal Challengers Bengaluru before becoming an umpire. “Network building is a huge part of the exercise. There are franchises who rely on match referees, umpires and curators for tip-offs. As scouts, we formed groups and spread out all over the country. We tried to cover every tournament,” Shrivastava told TOI. Each state association starting its own T20 league has added further depth. Priyansh Arya, Digvesh Rathi and Aniket Verma exemplify this. Selectors adopting the change in mindset Paras Mhambrey, who served BCCI as a bowling coach for developmental teams and the senior India team before rejoining Mumbai Indians last year, acknowledged that the selection process has evolved, attributing significant influence to the IPL.

“Impact” is now the most crucial factor in evaluating a player, aligning with coach Gautam Gambhir’s perspective on the format. Former India opener Devang Gandhi, a member of the selection committee that first chose T Natarajan and Varun for India’s 2020-21 tour of Australia, warned against mixing formats.

“Hardik and Bumrah were picked for the 2016 T20 World Cup by the selection committee before us. When we picked Natarajan and Varun, it was done purely looking at them as T20 specialists.

We refer to IPL performances. A mystery spinner takes time to be picked by the opponents. Consistency in IPL gives enough idea about their temperament. Formats should not be mixed. With batters, you want to see them perform a little longer in various domestic tournaments,” Gandhi told TOI.

A member of the previous selection committee, who wished to remain anonymous, agreed that Chakravarthy was selected based on his novelty.

When Pandya’s bowling and fitness declined in 2021-22, the selectors opted for Venkatesh Iyer, who was discovered in the IPL in UAE. The selector noted that IPL has made maintaining a strong pool considerably easier. “For T20s, you don’t have to look too much into domestic records over a period of time. It’s about making impact consistently,” the selector said.

The intense competition in India’s T20 scene has led selectors to focus more on rejection than selection. The omission of Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rinku Singh for the T20 World Cup that India won in 2024 sparked debate.

They remain subjects of discussion as the next edition of the tournament gets closer. Former India wicketkeeper Vijay Dahiya, who has worked with KKR, DC and LSG, says, “When we picked Ayush Badoni and Mayank Yadav out of the blue for LSG in 2022, we looked at their potential to be international cricketers, but immediate IPL impact was at the forefront. Form in T20 cricket is often judged on recent performances. Over time, you get to see the hunger of a player.

Chakravarthy is a prime example. He was discovered when he made his T20I debut.

He went back and worked on his game to make a comeback. India has a sizeable database through IPL to separate modern-day T20 players. So, it’s still about selection,” Dahiya said. The IPL has provided a vast array of talent for selectors. The outcome will depend on how they form a balanced and impressive team