Vinod Kambli disagrees with Sourav Ganguly, says players should be picked as per formats

Former India captain Sourav Ganguly recently opined that the selectors should start picking the same players in all formats so that they gain in rhythm and confidence. In connection with the recent squads that India selected for the upcoming tour of the West Indies, Ganguly said too few players are taking part in all the formats and added that great teams had consistent players.

He also cautioned that the pick-all selection process is not about making all happy but to play the best team and achieve consistency. The 47-year-old former left-hand batsman also expressed surprise that India didn’t pick Shubman Gill and Ajinkya Rahane for the ODI squads. Shubman missed out despite bagging the man of the series award in the recent ODI series versus the West Indies A while Rahane is currently in a good nick in English county cricket where he is playing for Hampshire.

Kambli believes in horses for courses

However, another former India cricketer Vinod Kambli was not ready to buy Ganguly’s logic. The former southpaw who was India’s most promising left-hand batsman till the arrival of Ganguly in the mid-1990s responded to the former captain’s tweet.

He said he more believed in horses for courses and thought those players suiting a particular format should be played. According to Kambli, it will help India to preserve players and with a big talent pool at its disposal, the management can utilise the players for a bigger series.

The 47-year-old also said that teams like England and Australia have benefited by the split of talents. England and Australia have been two teams that practised the horses for courses policy and split captaincy for formats consistently.

In India, players are generally tagged as fit for certain formats and they continue to play in those formats. While Cheteshwar Pujara hardly makes a name as a player who can suit limited-over formats, Rohit Sharma has been dubbed as someone who never clicks in Tests.

Kambli has played in 17 Tests and 104 ODIs to score around 3.5k runs in international cricket. He played in Test cricket for a couple of years and ODIs for around nine years after making several comebacks.