Former India all-rounder and selector Mohinder Amarnath feels that MS Dhoni and other senior players must play domestic cricket to be eligible for selection in the national team. Having being dropped from the Twenty20 side recently and retired from Tests long ago, Dhoni now is a certainty in only ODI cricket.
Despite having the time, the former captain did not play the 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy this year and will go into the three-match series in Australia next month without any match practice.
“Every individual is different but one thing I have always believed in is that if you want to play for India you have to play for your state as well. I think they (BCCI) should change this policy altogether. A lot of senior players don't play domestic cricket,” said Amarnath.
Legendary opener Sunil Gavaskar had suggested the same recently.
Shikhar Dhawan is another senior player who is not playing the ongoing Ranji Trophy despite being dropped from the Test team.
“The BCCI should make it an ‘eligibility criteria’. Not only a number of games, should you be playing regularly for your state, if you aren’t playing for India and not only just before the India selection. Then only you can judge how good the guy is playing. Whatever you have achieved is all in the past. What is important is current form," Amarnath added.
“Even if you are playing one format, you should be playing all formats at least in domestic cricket to be considered for selection,” the former selector said.
Dhoni recently featured in the ODI series against West Indies but was dropped from the T20I series thereafter. He also didn’t get to play in the Australia T20Is, however, his return in the ODIs is expected next year.