"The Franchise Route...": Indian Star's Subtle IPL Dig At BCCI Selectors

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is arguably the most lucrative T20 league in the world. The IPL has been a great talent breeding ground in the Indian spectrum. While picking-up white-ball players with IPL performances as reference makes sense, should Test selection also be made on the basis of IPL performances? As the India Test squad for the West Indies tour was picked, Yashasvi Jaiswal's inclusion became a subject of intense chatter on social media. While there's no denying that Jaiswal was in superlative form in the IPL for Rajasthan Royals, many feel it's his performances in the T20 league that earned him a spot in the Test team.

Indian batter Abhinav Mukund, taking to Twitter, questioned the selection committee's process of picking players. He took a subtle dig at the selectors for giving more weightage to IPL performances than First Class cricket.

"Unable to understand these selections- too many thoughts in my head to compile into a tweet. But what is the incentive for a young player to take pride in playing for his state anymore? Clearly, the franchise route is a faster way to scale the grade," he tweeted.

Unable to understand these selections- too many thoughts in my head to compile into a tweet. But what is the incentive for a young player to take pride in playing for his state anymore? Clearly the franchise route is a faster way to scale the grade. #INDvsWI

— Abhinav Mukund (@mukundabhinav) June 23, 2023

Abhinav's comments come in after there's been plenty of debate over the absence of domestic stars like Sarfaraz Khan and Abhimanyu Easwaran from India's Test team.

The likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ruturaj Gaikwad, on the other hand, were picked for the West Indies tour after a prolific season in the IPL with their respective franchises.

Much like Mukund, former India cricketers like Sunil Gavaskar and Aakash Chopra have been left baffled over certain selection calls that the BCCI made for the West Indies tour. The absence of 'Test specialist' Cheteshwar Pujara is also one.

from NDTV Sports-Cricket
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