Parthiv Patel was tipped to replace Agarkar, and he let the selectors’ deadline pass without applying
The BCCI’s window for the West Zone seat on the senior selection panel closed at 5pm on Wednesday, and Pragyan Ojha now looks set to stay on as chairman.
Oct 15, 2026
The man most people expected to become India’s next chief selector never put his name forward. Parthiv Patel had not applied for the vacant West Zone seat on the BCCI’s senior men’s selection committee by 5pm IST on Wednesday, the closing time the board had set, a BCCI source told PTI.
The seat has been empty since 4 October, when Ajit Agarkar’s term ended. Agarkar, chairman since July 2023, told the board before its annual general meeting on 18 September that he would not seek another extension. Pragyan Ojha has run the panel on an interim basis since then, and the PTI report says he is now set to stay in the chair for the rest of his term.
Why the chair went to Ojha
Ojha took charge because he has played more Tests than any other sitting selector. The left-arm spinner played 24 of them between 2009 and 2013 and took 113 wickets. The other three on the panel are Shiv Sunder Das, Ajay Ratra and RP Singh.
Parthiv’s decision changes more than one seat. He played 25 Tests, one more than Ojha, so an application from him could have reopened the question of who leads the committee.
Who is left for the West Zone seat
Without Parthiv, the field looks thin. Ramesh Powar and Sameer Dighe both applied the last time the selectors’ posts were advertised, and they are now seen as the main contenders. Powar played two Tests and 31 ODIs as an off-spinner, coached India’s women’s team twice, and had been linked with the chairmanship of the junior men’s committee. Dighe kept wicket in six Tests, all in 2001.
Parthiv is expected to carry on with his coaching role at Gujarat Titans and his broadcasting work. The BCCI could extend the deadline to give him another chance, but no extension had been announced by Thursday.
Two bigger names said no
The Times of India reported on Thursday that the board had offered places on the panel to two former India players with close to 100 Tests each, and that both turned it down. Neither has been named. That is awkward for a board that has just found more money for the job: it has set aside ₹19.35 crore for its selection committees in 2026-27, after spending ₹17.45 crore on them the year before.
Whoever ends up in the seat walks into a busy month. The committee picked India’s T20I squad for the New Zealand tour on 6 October, with the ODI and Test squads to follow. The first T20I is in Christchurch on 22 October, and the ODIs start in Auckland on 4 November.