During his time as India’s chief selector, Ajit Agarkar has made a number of bold choices, shown innovative leadership, and demonstrated a strong commitment to creating a team that can win important competitions. His strategy has greatly influenced Indian cricket’s recent development, from supporting new leaders to making important team selections.
While some choices generated controversy, others produced outstanding outcomes on the grandest stage. During his time as top selector, Ajit Agarkar produced these five masterstrokes that were vital to Indian cricket.
Here are the 5 masterstrokes by Ajit Agarkar as chief selector:
- Giving Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli a reality check
Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are two giants of Indian cricket, but during 2023 and 2025, both the batters were struggling in red-ball cricket. Especially Kohli, whose Test average took a significant hit post the 2020 Covid pandemic, and Rohit Sharma was criticised for his fitness.
Agarkar, being their senior, gave them the truth after both failed to perform in the 2024 Test series in Australia. Kohli faltered after a century in the first Test, while Rohit struggled throughout. Both wanted to carry on in Tests but got a reality check from Agarkar and called time on their Test careers to focus on ODI cricket.
- Choosing younger options over Mohammad Shami
Mohammad Shami last played for India in the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy, where he made his comeback after the 2023 World Cup. However, there were still concerns about his fitness, and that’s where Ajit Agarkar took charge and decided to pick young pacers to fill the void left by Shami. Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, and Arshdeep Singh were given chances in ODIs, though Shami sent signals that he was ready for a comeback.
However, reports had stated that Shami had refused to come back for the 2025 England Test series, citing fitness issues, and that’s when Agarkar knew that India needed fresh blood and looked to blood in fresher pacers.
- Playing format specialist players
Ajit Agarkar identified a younger lot from the Indian Premier League and formed a separate T20I-format-specific team. Players like Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Varun Chakravarthy, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, and others got priority over players who played both ODIs and Tests. The result was that India went on a dominant run in T20Is, not losing a single series between the 2024 T20 World Cup win and the 2026 T20 World Cup win.
This included making players like Shubman Gill, Mohammad Shami, Mohammed Siraj, and others play Tests and ODIs only, because they didn’t suit the T20I way of batting and bowling. This lookout and identification of correct players for the right format led to the Indian team having a brilliant run in T20Is and ODIs.
- Backing Suryakumar Yadav over Hardik Pandya as India’s T20I captain
Rohit Sharma had announced his retirement from T20Is after winning the T20 World Cup 2024 in the Caribbean and the USA. Everyone expected Hardik Pandya, the vice-captain, to take over the captaincy duties going forward. He had captained India before as well, when Rohit Sharma was busy in the ODI format.
However, Ajit Agarkar and co. surprised everyone by naming Suryakumar Yadav as the new T20I captain of the Indian team. He believed Suryakumar Yadav was the calmer of the two and had experience on his side. Also, Hardik Pandya is too valuable as an all-rounder for India, and Suryakumar Yadav proved to be the right choice, as India went on a rampage in T20Is, staying undefeated from one T20 World Cup to another T20 World Cup, ending with India winning the 2026 IC event.
- Recalling Ishan Kishan and dropping Shubman Gill
Ishan Kishan had been out of contention for the Indian side since 2023, when he took a mental health break from cricket and refused to play Ranji Trophy cricket to be in contention for England Tests in 2024. He was punished by having his central contract away and was pushed down the rung in the wicketkeeper-batter ladder, with Rishabh Pant, Sanju Samson, KL Rahul, Jitesh Sharma, and Dhruv Jurel going ahead.
But Ishan Kishan persevered in domestic cricket and scored a mountain of runs and led Jharkhand to the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy by scoring a hundred in the final. Ajit Agarkar saw the right moment and blooded him in by dropping Shubman Gill, who had struggled on the road to the 2026 T20 World Cup. Ishan Kishan hammered a ton against New Zealand and played a central role in India’s T20 World Cup win, and has cemented his place in T20Is and ODI teams.
