Windies tour: Rinku, Jitesh in line for T20Is, will selectors phase out Pujara?

Senior players Cheteshwar Pujara and Umesh Yadavs places could come under scanner before Men in Blue travels to West Indies for a twoTest series blame Indias second successive World Test Championship final defeat Yashasvi Jaiswal and Mukesh Kumar are in contention to replace the duo as the selection committee starts preparing the next batch of players for tougher assignmentsIndia will have a monthlong tour of West Indies where they would start with two Test matches starting July 12 followed by three ODIs and five T20Is in which a completely new team under Hardik Pandyas captaincy will be plying its trade with IPL performers likely to be rewardedWhile another WTC final defeat will hurt the team there is a strong feeling that the Shiv Sunder Dasled selection committee and head coach Rahul Dravid will be looking at new options going into the next WTC cycle which starts with the series in the Caribbean The two weak links as of now seem to be Pujara and Umesh who havent been up to the mark for a long timeYou need to strike a balance Selection is a process of elimination but you need that blend of youth and experience The idea should be longterm and you have to look at two year cycle now I believe Yashasvi Jaiswal is ready for international cricket He has scored double hundreds in Ranji Irani and Duleep Trophy Looks solid in terms of temperament and could be groomed while being given enough chances to grow former national selector Devang Gandhi told PTIAlso Read Can Indias Big Three redeem themselves after seismic defeat during WTC finalAnother former national selector who refused to be quoted was critical of the BCCI not having any A Tour programme since the tour of Bangladesh last DecemberLook Umesh is at the business end of his career but with no A tour programme you dont know who all are ready There was a time we had Mayank Agarwal Rishabh Pant Hanuma Vihari Mohammed Siraj Navdeep Saini ready through consistent A tours and shadow series Now you dont know I presume only form bowler is Mukesh Kumar but he is a seamer and not an express pacer the selector saidWhile one cant put a date on KL Rahuls comeback from a thigh surgery he is no longer in leadership contention Will skipper Rohit Sharma considering his current form and fitness continue to play Test cricket for two more years and complete the next cycle when he would be nearly 38 Thats a million dollar question at the moment Another question is who is a better bet as vicecaptain in next one year if Pujara is phased out considering that the West Indies is one Test team against whom a youngster would have easy initiationThe problem is that you give a West Indies Test series to Pujara and if he scores you have got to persist with him for one more year as there are no Tests after this till December So do you do that or straightaway get a youngster and get him ready for bigger battles the former selector questionedFor many Shubman Gill at 23 is at the correct age where he can be prepared over time for a leadership role A shortterm solution could be to hand it over to a sureshot allformat player like Ravindra JadejaHowever Gandhi asked why not someone like R Ashwin who has a fantastic cricket brainWhy not Ashwin And if you say that he is not a certainty overseas then I would say even Rahane despite being a vicecaptain was dropped from playing XI at one point So even Ashwin can be considered or Rahane for a short time before Gill cements his place in Test XI Gandhi opinedOne format where there wont be any ambiguity is T20 Internationals where Hardik Pandya will lead India including in next years T20 World Cup in the Americas West Indies and USAThe T20I team would be purely based on IPL performers and one can expect the likes of Rinku Singh and Jitesh Sharma to make the cut in the final squad as teams in the past lacked finishersWhile Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are being phased out of the shortest format the likes of Mohammed Shami Mohammed Siraj could be rested considering their workload and the upcoming ODIs before the World CupWith PTI inputs