Ajit Agarkar has been appointed as the Chairman of the Indian Men’s Selection Committee

Former Indian fast bowler Ajit Agarkar has been appointed as the head of the selection committee of the Indian men’s team. Agarkar, 45, filled the post that had been lying vacant since February after Chetan Sharma stepped down due to a sting operation conducted by an Indian television network.

Agarkar is the fifth member of India’s men’s selection squad, which already includes Shiv Sundar Das, Salil Ankola, Subroto Banerjee and S Sharath. Agarkar, who has played 26 Tests and 191 ODIs, is the senior member of the team and its president as per BCCI rules. First on their plate is picking the squad for the five-match T20I series against the West Indies starting on August 3.

Agarkar was unanimously selected by the three-member Cricket Advisory Committee comprising Ashok Malhotra, Sulakshana Naik and Jatin Paranjabe, who conducted the interview on Monday. It could not be confirmed whether Agarkar was the sole applicant for the post advertised by the BCCI, with a June 30 deadline.

Agarkar, who has played four T20Is for India, will be in charge of the selectors for the second time, having worked in a small capacity for Mumbai between 2017-19. Agarkar was part of the coaching staff at Delhi Capitals for the last two years, but they have since parted ways. It is understood the owner did not renew his contract.

India are a team in transition, and the uncertainty surrounding their selection team only adds to that feeling. It all started last year when the BCCI withdrew from the convention to award the president twice and asked for fresh applications for Chetan’s role following the semi-final defeat in the T20 World Cup. But the board failed to attract a top pick and re-elected Chetan as head of selectors, a sting operation that led to his resignation, which was never approved by the BCCI.

Agarkar’s appointment is in a panel consisting of two selectors from the Western Region, the other from Angola. The BCCI constitution, drafted as per the recommendations of the RM Lodha-Committee, made no mention of selectors being appointed on a zonal basis; All five of them must have retired for at least five years and played a certain number of matches. Although the BCCI has traditionally followed an unwritten rule of selecting a selector from each of the five zones, the advertisement for the role did not specify that it was looking for a candidate from a particular zone.