BCCI will name Agarkar's successor as chief selector only after his term ends on October 4

India will carry on into their home white-ball season without a confirmed chairman of selectors, after the BCCI said the appointment will be made only once Ajit Agarkar's term expires on October 4

Agarkar's three-year contract as chairman of the senior men's selection committee ends on October 4, and he has told the board he does not wish to take up the further year he was entitled to.

The BCCI will not move before that date. "We will be taking a call after 4th October. Once the BCCI decides something, we will definitely reveal it to the public," secretary Devajit Saikia told PTI Videos.

That leaves the present panel responsible for India's teams through the opening week of the West Indies tour, which starts with the first ODI in Thiruvananthapuram on September 27.

A term that closes without an extension

Agarkar was appointed on July 4, 2023, taking charge of a committee reconstituted after the panel led by Chetan Sharma was dissolved in the wake of the 2022 T20 World Cup.

He was eligible for a one-year extension. He informed the board around the time of its annual general meeting that he would not seek one.

Saikia has presented the succession as a matter of sequence rather than urgency. "We are going to take a decision regarding the vacant position which will be there after 4th of October," he said.

No interim arrangement has been announced for the days between the end of the term and the appointment.

What the AGM left open

The BCCI's 95th annual general meeting, held in Mumbai on September 18, did not settle the question itself.

The general body instead passed it to the board's office-bearers. "The office bearers have been authorised to take decisions on the matters concerning the selection committees," a senior BCCI official said at the time.

The same authorisation covers five vacancies on the junior selection committee, which are also unfilled.

The disagreement over Rohit Sharma

Indian outlets have tied the exit to a difference over Rohit Sharma's one-day future, reporting that the selectors had moved past the former captain in their planning for the 2027 ODI World Cup.

Saikia backed Rohit publicly after the Afghanistan series, rejecting the suggestion that a one-day retirement was close. The board has not commented on the reported rift since.

Rohit and Virat Kohli were both named in the 15-man ODI squad for the West Indies series, returning after two months away from international cricket. Shubman Gill leads that side, with Shreyas Iyer continuing as T20I captain.

Parthiv Patel and Pragyan Ojha in the frame

No candidate has been confirmed by the board. Reports in India have named former wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel, expected to come in as the West Zone selector, and Pragyan Ojha, already on the panel, as the leading contenders.

The committee's other members are Shiv Sundar Das, Ajay Ratra and RP Singh.

The chairman's departure also leaves West Zone without a representative, so the board's choice settles the panel's zonal balance as well as its leadership.

What the next chairman inherits

India won the 2024 and 2026 T20 World Cups and the 2025 Champions Trophy under Agarkar, while the Test side slipped, most visibly in a 3-0 home defeat by New Zealand in 2024.

The West Indies squads, for three ODIs and five T20Is running to October 17, are likely to be the last he picks.

His successor inherits a home T20I series against New Zealand and, beyond it, the 2027 ODI World Cup, the assignment the board has said the appointment must serve.

India begin the West Indies series in Thiruvananthapuram on September 27, a week before Agarkar's term runs out.

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