Harbhajan Singh curious on parameters of selection by committee

Karun Nair played a spectacular knock of 303 runs against England in the fifth Test of England tour of India in December 2016, helping the home team finish the five-match series on a higher note. He is the only second Indian after Virender Sehwag to achieve the feat of hitting a triple ton. Everyone would have expected Karun Nair to have become one of India’s regular batsmen after that but the road has been downhill for the Karnataka batsman since then.  Nair then was selected to play against Australia in 2017 but could not emulate such a performance. Since then, Nair has not got the chance to represent India.

There was a silver lining for Nair when he returned to the Test Squad for the matches against Afghanistan and England. But all he did was spend time on the bench for six consecutive Test matches. The selectors have now dropped Karun Nair again for the Windies Test series. While the selection committee Chairman has not ruled out Nair’s chances for playing in the Indian team again, fans and pundits across the country are curious about the process of selection of the Test Team.  

"This is a mystery that needs to be solved. How can a person sitting on the bench for three months become so bad that he is not good enough to remain in the squad," Harbhajan told PTI. 

"Trust me, I am at pains to understand the thinking of this selection committee and the parameters that they are using for selecting national squads. I find a different set of rules for different players. There are some who are given a long rope to succeed while for select others they don't even get one chance to fail. That is not fair."

Harbhajan then put forth a hypothetical question asking what would happen if Hanuma Vihari would not perform well during the series against the Windies and added that it would be very late till then to bring back Nair.

"What if Hanuma Vihari fails in two Test matches against West Indies? Though I would never wish something like that for any player. I wish him (Vihari) all the very best. (In case Vihari is not able to deliver) so you will go back to Nair but will he be battle ready with confidence for Australia tour? " the off-spinner said.

"Hope all concerned with team selection undergo course correction before they decide on the Australia tour."