The message from Indian cricket’s think-tank is blunt: no more gambles with half-fit players.
Stung by a string of late withdrawals and mid-tour pull-outs, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), its selection committee and the Centre of Excellence (CoE) headed by VVS Laxman have tightened the screws on fitness clearance. If a player is named in a squad now, it will be because the system is almost over-sure.
“Not just 100 per cent, but they want to be 200 per cent confident,” is how one source close to the process put it. The language may be exaggerated; the intent is not.
Harshit Rana and a turning point
The tipping point arrived with Harshit Rana.
After five months out, the fast bowler finally forced his way back into the frame in June, picked for the Ireland and England tours. It should have been a fresh chapter. Instead, it lasted less than two weeks. He broke down again, could not complete the England leg and was sent home. Prince Yadav had to be flown in as a replacement.
Rana’s case was not an outlier. It was simply the latest in an uncomfortable pattern.
Jasprit Bumrah and Sai Sudharsan were both selected for the Sri Lanka Tests, only to be replaced by Auqib Nabi and Sarfaraz Khan. Suryansh Shedge was drafted in at the last minute for Nitish Kumar Reddy for the Ireland and England tour. Varun Chakaravarthy made way for Ravi Bishnoi for the Zimbabwe series, again at the eleventh hour.
Each change chipped away at planning, combinations and trust in the process. The CoE has responded by moving in the opposite direction: slow, cautious, uncompromising.
Conditional picks and clear asterisks
The most visible outcome is the rise of the “conditional selection”.
In Tuesday’s media release naming the squad for the T20Is against Afghanistan, four players – Bumrah, Washington Sundar, Nitish Reddy and Rana – appeared with an asterisk. They are in the squad, but only if they pass fitness tests closer to the series.
This is not a quiet, internal note. It is now part of the public communication.
Laxman, as CoE head, framed it as a matter of honesty with both players and fans.
“They understand that they're not yet ready to participate in the national series,” he said. “It's always player-centric and team-centric. So that communication is happening seamlessly. I think what the BCCI has done is there's transparency in all the fitness reports and also in the selection.
“At the end of the selection, whether it's a release to the press, it's clearly mentioned that these players are picked subject to fitness. Means if they don't clear the fitness test, the selectors will know who are the other players who will go in their place if they don't clear the fitness test. I mean, it's basic common sense.”
The bluntness of that last line underlines where the board believes it went wrong in the past. Contingency plans now exist before a squad is announced, not after a player breaks down.
Inside the timeline
BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia lifted the lid on the mechanics.
Selection meetings, he explained, typically take place three to four weeks before a team leaves. That gap used to be a grey area for players under rehabilitation. Now, it is formally acknowledged.
“So if he gets picked within that period of 21 or 28 days, he will be taken into the team,” Saikia said. “So that is precisely why we do not outrightly reject him because on the date of selection, we are rejecting him because on that day he is not fit. But, by the time it will be effectively required for the travel or to play the match, by that time he may be totally fit.”
The asterisk, then, is not a soft promise. It is a window: a defined period in which a player must prove he can withstand the demands of international cricket.
Bumrah, Reddy and the current equation
All eyes, as always, drift towards Bumrah.
Despite the asterisk next to his name, those in the know are confident he will be available for the three-match Afghanistan series starting September 13 in New Delhi. Internally, there is little anxiety about his readiness; the conditional tag is part of the new template, not a red flag in his case.
Nitish Reddy sits in a similar bracket, though from a different starting point. The all-rounder, sidelined with a quadriceps injury, has ramped up his workload at the CoE and is now bowling six to seven overs a day at full tilt. People familiar with his programme believe he should be good to go for the Delhi games if he continues on this trajectory.
Rana and Washington Sundar, however, remain under a cloud. Their situations are less clear, and that is exactly where the new policy bites.
“The CoE will not take chances,” the source stressed.
The message to India’s players is unmistakable: prove your body can last before you pull on the shirt. The era of hopeful selections and hurried replacements is over; the asterisk now carries as much weight as the cap number.
