Former Indian chairman of selectors and commentator Kris Srikkanth has questioned the selection committee, led by Ajit Agarkar, for selecting Vipraj Nigam for the forthcoming Asian Games 2026 in Japan.
Notably, Vipraj has been named as Varun Chakravarthy’s replacement for the one-off T20I against Japan and the Asian Games 2026. In the IPL 2026 season, Vipraj scored only 15 runs and scalped two wickets in five innings.
“How did Vipraj Nigam get into the squad out of nowhere? On what basis has he been picked? Is he such a great bowler to be picked as a like-for-like for Varun Chakaravarthy? You can’t dish out the Indian cap like this to everyone. It’s like you can purchase an Indian cap in a shop now,” Srikkanth said on his YouTube channel.
Further, Srikkanth questioned the selection committee for consistently excluding RCB stars Rajat Patidar, Krunal Pandya and Bhuvneshwar Kumar despite their consistent IPL performances.
“What wrong have Rajat Patidar, Krunal Pandya and Bhuvneshwar Kumar done in life? Some of these selections are baffling. Age cannot be the only decider, as it seems to be with Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Krunal Pandya. It’s also about capability and performance,” said Srikkanth.
“The younger players have to push these guys out through performances. But have Yash Thakur or Ravi Bishnoi done that through performances? Definitely not. These guys don’t even fit into the 11 for IPL teams,” he concluded.
India’s updated squad for the Japan T20I & the Asian Games: Shreyas Iyer (C), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (WK), Ishan Kishan (WK), Shivam Dube, Tilak Varma (VC), Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Yash Thakur, Vipraj Nigam
