Despite rift, two cricketers included in Ranji squad

VADODARA: The Ranji team announced by the newly-appointed selectors has raised many eyebrows. Despite the rift between former Ranji selectors over the selection of two cricketers, the new team decided to include their names in the list of 15 probables.
The Baroda Cricket Association (BCA) management released the list of selected players ahead of its first Ranji tie against Mumbai.
Led by Krunal Pandya, the team has several senior cricketers including Yusuf Pathan, Deepak Hooda, Swapnil Singh, Kedar Devdhar, Bhargav Bhatt and Aditya Waghmode. However, the inclusion of Sukrit Pandey and Viraj Bhonsle, nephew of former India cricketer, Kiran More has surprised many in the association.
Incidentally, four members of the Ranji selection committee had a showdown last week over these two players.
Two selectors were against the inclusion of Bhonsle and Pandey while three were in favour. Bhonsle’s selection was opposed as he had failed in the YoYo fitness tests while Pandey hadn’t played in any of the Vijay Hazare Trophy and T20 matches this season.
Interestingly, the selectors have overlooked players who scored big runs in BCCI tournaments in the earlier season.
The rift over selection of these two cricketers reached to such an extent that the BCA management had to remove chief selector, Leslie Fernandes, Vikram Hazare, Pradip Banerjee and Khagesh Amin from Ranji selection committee.
“The selection of some players is done without considering merit. The new selection committee will have to pick up the Ranji squads on merit if they want the team to perform well in this season,” said a BCA committee member.