Sunil Gavaskar lashes out at selectors for not discussing Virat Kohli's position as captain

What's the story?

Former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar questioned the authority of the selectors as they decided to continue with Virat Kohli as the captain of all formats. Gavaskar said that Kohli retaining captaincy even after a below-par World Cup performance is giving out a wrong message.

In case you didn't know

India was knocked out of the 2019 World Cup by New Zealand in the semifinal, which raised doubts over the position of Kohli as the captain. Kohli was retained as the captain for all three formats for the tour of West Indies.

Heart of the matter

Sunil Gavaskar pointed out that selectors retaining Virat Kohli without even a meeting suggests that they don't have the power to remove Kohli.

"That they selected the team for West Indies without first having a meeting to select the captain brings up the question of whether Virat Kohli is the captain of the team at his or the selection committee's pleasure,” Gavaskar said as quoted by Mid-Day

The former Indian captain also questioned the biased approach of the selection committee. He felt that Dinesh Karthik and Kedar Jadhav were dropped from the team but Kohli has been reappointed as captain without a discussion after the semi-final exit.

“Speaking of lame ducks, the Indian selection committee appears to be one. After the reappointment, he (Captain) gets invited to the meeting for his views on selecting the players for the team. By bypassing the procedure, the message that goes out is that while the players like Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik get dropped after below expectations performance, the captain continues despite much below par expectations where the team did not even reach the finals.”

Sunil Gavaskar further wrote that this can be the last selection by the current committee as the new committee might be appointed by BCCI.

“This is probably one of the last selections for this committee as a new one will get appointed soon. Hopefully, that will have players of stature who will not get bullied and be able to tell the team management that their job is to play with the team chosen by the selectors.”

What's next?

Virat Kohli is set to lead India against West Indies in the Carribean tour starting with a T20 international on 3rd August. This tour will be very important for Virat Kohli, as poor performance in this tour might put his position under scanner once again.