<p>Kolkata: For all the accolades that Virat Kohli earned as India's Test captain, he had one notorious image: Not fielding the same 11 in two consecutive Tests in his first 38 matches as skipper.</p>.<p>Strategic balance based on conditions and opposition's strengths and weaknesses should always dictate team selections, but Kohli's habit of constantly tinkering with combinations often felt baffling and at times even superstitious. While that left fans curious ahead of each Test during his captaincy, now under Head Coach Gautam Gambhir and chief selector Ajit Agarkar, it seems to be the players who stay anxious about when their next match or series might come.</p>.<p>Selections, whether of the squad or the playing XI, have looked increasingly random over the past year, especially in Test cricket. Players are picked, benched and dropped with little clarity or strategic grounding. Gambhir and Agarkar, both former internationals of stature, undoubtedly want the best for Indian cricket, but the way they are handling their roles has likely left many players within the squad and on the fringes feeling unsure and insecure about their place and future. Even the messaging from the team management lacks consistency.</p>.<p>Take the case of Nitish Kumar Reddy. He is selected as a medium-pace all-rounder yet rarely gets the opportunity to perform either role. Bowling coach Morne Morkel has voiced sympathy, noting minimal game time he gets in India despite featuring in the XI. Gambhir, however, isn't as kind. He believes merely being part of the national setup is enough to foster growth.</p>.Deconstructing Kolkata Test defeat: Introspection time for Team India .<p>Even on pitch assessments, the management appears out of sync. Morkel admitted after the second day’s play here that he did not expect the wicket to deteriorate as quickly as it did, while Gambhir insisted the surface behaved exactly as intended.</p>.<p>The team management's thought process and actions are so arbitrary it has created a climate of uncertainty among the players.</p>.<p>Someone like Kuldeep Yadav, a genuine wicket-taker whose skills take the nature of the pitches out of equation, didn't get a single Test in England. Worse, Shardul Thakur was picked out of nowhere and played ahead of the left-arm wrist spinner in the first and fourth Tests only to be so sparingly used that he publicly expressed disappointment with skipper Shubman Gill for not trusting his bowling. </p>.<p>Karun Nair also had reason to feel aggrieved when he was ignored for the home series against the West Indies. At 34, he may not be a long-term option, and only a big run tally in England could have changed perceptions. But the constant shuffling of his batting position from No. 6 in the first Test to No. 3 in the second and third, then back to No. 6 in the fifth, did little to help him settle. Even so, he managed a half-century in the final Test on easily the most difficult wicket in the entire series but it was too late and too little for the selectors to continue with him. As it turns out, the Karnataka batter is raking in hundreds for fun in the Ranji Trophy now.</p>.<p>Similarly, Sai Sudharsan was tipped to be the team's future at No. 3 and was persisted with till he succeeded in the previous Test series against West Indies but found himself out of the XI in Kolkata against South Africa as the team management wanted to play four spinners without compromising on their batting might. That fourth-spinning all-rounder was Washington Sundar who was given just one over in the match. It's not the captain's fault because having got "exactly the kind of pitch" they wanted, there was hardly any room to bring in the fourth spinner into play.</p>.<p>There is no explanation why Sarfaraz Khan was kept out without giving a single match on the tour of Australia. No reason has been assigned as to why Mohammed Shami remains in international wilderness. Whether it is whims and preferences of a few or just a case of well-meaning intentions going wrong, it's not helping the cause of Indian cricket. </p>
<p>Kolkata: For all the accolades that Virat Kohli earned as India's Test captain, he had one notorious image: Not fielding the same 11 in two consecutive Tests in his first 38 matches as skipper.</p>.<p>Strategic balance based on conditions and opposition's strengths and weaknesses should always dictate team selections, but Kohli's habit of constantly tinkering with combinations often felt baffling and at times even superstitious. While that left fans curious ahead of each Test during his captaincy, now under Head Coach Gautam Gambhir and chief selector Ajit Agarkar, it seems to be the players who stay anxious about when their next match or series might come.</p>.<p>Selections, whether of the squad or the playing XI, have looked increasingly random over the past year, especially in Test cricket. Players are picked, benched and dropped with little clarity or strategic grounding. Gambhir and Agarkar, both former internationals of stature, undoubtedly want the best for Indian cricket, but the way they are handling their roles has likely left many players within the squad and on the fringes feeling unsure and insecure about their place and future. Even the messaging from the team management lacks consistency.</p>.<p>Take the case of Nitish Kumar Reddy. He is selected as a medium-pace all-rounder yet rarely gets the opportunity to perform either role. Bowling coach Morne Morkel has voiced sympathy, noting minimal game time he gets in India despite featuring in the XI. Gambhir, however, isn't as kind. He believes merely being part of the national setup is enough to foster growth.</p>.Deconstructing Kolkata Test defeat: Introspection time for Team India .<p>Even on pitch assessments, the management appears out of sync. Morkel admitted after the second day’s play here that he did not expect the wicket to deteriorate as quickly as it did, while Gambhir insisted the surface behaved exactly as intended.</p>.<p>The team management's thought process and actions are so arbitrary it has created a climate of uncertainty among the players.</p>.<p>Someone like Kuldeep Yadav, a genuine wicket-taker whose skills take the nature of the pitches out of equation, didn't get a single Test in England. Worse, Shardul Thakur was picked out of nowhere and played ahead of the left-arm wrist spinner in the first and fourth Tests only to be so sparingly used that he publicly expressed disappointment with skipper Shubman Gill for not trusting his bowling. </p>.<p>Karun Nair also had reason to feel aggrieved when he was ignored for the home series against the West Indies. At 34, he may not be a long-term option, and only a big run tally in England could have changed perceptions. But the constant shuffling of his batting position from No. 6 in the first Test to No. 3 in the second and third, then back to No. 6 in the fifth, did little to help him settle. Even so, he managed a half-century in the final Test on easily the most difficult wicket in the entire series but it was too late and too little for the selectors to continue with him. As it turns out, the Karnataka batter is raking in hundreds for fun in the Ranji Trophy now.</p>.<p>Similarly, Sai Sudharsan was tipped to be the team's future at No. 3 and was persisted with till he succeeded in the previous Test series against West Indies but found himself out of the XI in Kolkata against South Africa as the team management wanted to play four spinners without compromising on their batting might. That fourth-spinning all-rounder was Washington Sundar who was given just one over in the match. It's not the captain's fault because having got "exactly the kind of pitch" they wanted, there was hardly any room to bring in the fourth spinner into play.</p>.<p>There is no explanation why Sarfaraz Khan was kept out without giving a single match on the tour of Australia. No reason has been assigned as to why Mohammed Shami remains in international wilderness. Whether it is whims and preferences of a few or just a case of well-meaning intentions going wrong, it's not helping the cause of Indian cricket. </p>