Former Indian cricketers-Sunil Joshi and Harvinder Singh- will replace chairman of selectors MSK Prasad (South Zone) and Gagan Khoda (Central Zone) to complete the five-member panel of the Indian selection committee as the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) finally put an end to all the speculations that had galore in the past few days.

Joshi will lead the selection committee and one of the major tasks he’ll inherit from MSK Prasad is to decide the International future of former Indian captain and champion wicketkeeper-batsman MS Dhoni. Dhoni, who will soon be turning out for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), hasn’t played an international game since the 2019 World Cup.

While Ravi Shastri and the Indian team-management has time-and-again asserted that MS Dhoni might come into contention provided he has a good IPL season, MSK Prasad was of the opinion that the selection committee has moved on from the former captain and that was reflected in their selections.

Whether the Sunil Joshi-led committee abides by the same view remains to be seen. Unsurprisingly, the contenders- Venkatesh Prasad, Rajesh Chauhan, Laxman Shivaramkrishan- including Joshi and Singh were asked about how they would approach the Dhoni conundrum by the CAC during the interview.

“Yes, the CAC had one common question and that was about their call with regards to Mahendra Singh Dhoni and whether they will select him for T20 World Cup,” a senior BCCI official was quoted as saying by India Today.

The official revealed that the Madan Lal-led committee was looking for someone who had a clear-cut approach towards the issue. “Dhoni is both a sensitive and tricky issue and that’s why the question needed to be asked,” the source added.

CAC happy with Joshi’s ‘straightforward’ approach

Laxman Sivaramakrishnan had emerged as a strong candidate but the official revealed that the Madan Lal-led CAC were looking for someone who was not just looking at the ‘chairman’ spot but was also happy at just being a selector, something they thought Siva wouldn’t.

Earlier, Madan Lal had himself mentioned that the committee was happy with Joshi’s ‘straight-forward’ attitude and with the fact that the former left-arm spinner does not have any issues with working in a capacity of a member of the selection committee. “We liked his straight forward attitude,” Lal had said after the interviews in Mumbai.