What’s the point of domestic cricket if performance is not rewarded?

Since the national cricket selectors announced the Indian team for next month’s ICC Champions Trophy, there are more questions than answers. Why does the Indian hierarchy only pay lip service  to domestic events? What is the point of such cricket if those entrusted with the task of recognising it as the primary platform from which talent is picked turn a blind eye? 

Those who played the Vijay Hazare Trophy tournament and performed with the bat have not been selected. On the contrary, those who have not played domestic cricket and have been out of form in international cricket have been picked in the team for the Champions Trophy. The selectors seem to believe that the leading batters will all miraculously regain their touch.

What was the great point of scheduling the Vijay Hazare Trophy tournament if someone who had an outstanding time in the competition was overlooked when the selectors sat down to pick the Indian team for the Champions Trophy? Of course, only 15 players could be picked. And the job of the selectors is never an easy one, with someone or the other being left out. 

Vidarbha captain Karun Nair hit five centuries in amassing 779 runs in nine innings as he led his team to the Vijay Harare Tropny final against redoubtable Karnataka. By not rewarding him a berth in the team for the Champions Trophy, the selectors have in their own way raised doubts about the quality of competition obtained in India’s premier 50-over-a-side tournament.

This episode reminds me of how the Equestrian Federation of India made athlete-horse combinations go through countless selection trials at home ahead of the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games when it was well aware that horses from India would not be allowed to travel to China because of the quarantine rules. 

Having laid down selection criteria for athlete-horse combinations, EFI went ahead and used the order of merit to pick some probables to travel to Europe and train on leased horses for a few weeks before identifying some competitions as selection trials to identify the squad that would travel to Hangzhou.

Of course, the Board of Control for Cricket in India Selection Committee’s decision is not based on such extreme oscillations, but there can be no denying the opinion that the action of the selectors has reduced the Vijay Hazare Trophy tournament to being only of statistical relevance, just a  competition on BCCI calendar and not much else. 

Karun Nair is not the only player who may be feeling hard done by. Sanju Samson and Mohammed Siraj are others who would have expected to make the cut. And there is all-rounder Hardik Pandya whose claims as vice-captain have been overlook in favour of Shubman Gill and can be envisioned scratching his chin. 

However, it is apparent that the selectors and the team management expect to give him enough and more responsibility. As the only allrounder who can bowl at a brisk pace, he may have bowl 10 overs in each game besides contribute with the bat. In his own way, he has been given the chance by the selectors to emerge as a leader. 

It is also clear that the selectors have taken a huge punt on the fitness of Jasprit Bumrah (back problem) and Kuldeep Yadav (recovering from a groin surgery). It must be hoped that either bowler does not stress the Board’s medical team in the month that is left for its first Champions Trophy game against Bangladesh in Dubai. 

More than the bowling unit itself, the form of most of India’s batting composition deepens the burrows on many foreheads. The biggest cause of concern is Rohit Sharma who has scored a little over 200 runs in 17 innings in his last 10 outings. He has his task cut out, sorting his batting woes and at the same not letting that have an impact on his captaincy.

It is being said that left-handed Yashasvi Jaiswal, rewarded for his fine form in Test cricket with a place in the squad, is a reserve opening bat. Unlike in the Test matches in Australia where the captain ‘stood down’ in the final game owing to his poor form, it is unthinkable that the skipper will do something similar and allow the young left-hander a crack at the new ball.

The beauty of cricket is such that the team chosen may actually make us eat humble pie by winning five games in-a-row and returning home with the ICC Champions Trophy. However, even that will not serve as enough justification for the selectors to overlook performances in domestic cricket.