Sir — The announcement by the chairman of the selection committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India of the Indian men’s team for the tour of Australia in all three formats was both interesting as well as perplexing in parts. The tour starts with the first one-day international in Sydney on November 27 and will end with the fourth Test match in Brisbane, which is from January 15-19 next year. Rohit Sharma has been left out of the squad after sustaining a hamstring injury, and K.L. Rahul, the captain of the Kings XI Punjab for the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League, has been made the vice-captain for the limited-overs formats for the tour. Rishabh Pant has also been excluded from the white ball format owing to his poor run during the IPL, but has found a place in the Test side. Hardik Pandya has missed out on the Tests but will play in the ODIs and the Twenty20 matches.

Mohammed Siraj, Varun Chakravarthy and Shubman Gill have all been included in the squad; while Siraj has got a berth in the longer format, Gill will play in both the ODIs and the Tests. Chakravarthy, known as the mystery spinner for the Kolkata Knight Riders, has made his way into the T20 side. However, many have expressed their disbelief after Suryakumar Yadav was ignored in the selection process. The right-handed batsman has been in sublime form for the Mumbai Indians, both during the previous edition of the IPL as well as during the tournament this year. He has notched up 283 runs at an average of 31.44 and a strike-rate of 148.94 in the matches he has played so far. He also has two half-centuries to his name, with a highest score of 79 not out. One does not know what else he needs to do to get picked for the national team, given that he has been performing during the IPL as well as the Ranji Trophy season.

Bhagwan Thadani,
Mumbai

Sir — The former chief selector for India, Dilip Vengsarkar, has rightly said that the BCCI president, Sourav Ganguly, should investigate why Suryakumar Yadav was not picked for the tour of Australia. Even players such as Manoj Tiwary and Harbhajan Singh have been vocally critical about the selection committee’s inexplicable decision to exclude Yadav from all formats of the game for the upcoming tour. The batsman has been performing so well that the selectors had no reason not to pick him. He would have been a real asset to India while playing on the tough pitches Down Under.

It is high time some transparency and accountability were brought to the selection process. Ganguly himself has borne the brunt of selectors’ prejudice during his cricketing career even though he was easily one of the best batsmen and captains Indian cricket has ever seen. He should take the matter seriously and find out why Yadav was not selected.

Rishiraj Sikri,
Delhi

New warning

Sir — In a welcome move, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has declared that those caught without a mask in public in Mumbai will have to sweep the streets if they are unwilling to pay the stipulated fine for the offence. It is a pity that such measures have to be resorted to; one would expect adult citizens to be more mindful of their own health and that of others during a global pandemic. Why must they be arm-twisted into complying with regulations that have been put in place for their own good? Nevertheless, one hopes that the new rule will have its desired effect.

Sudeshna Koli,
Mumbai

Parting Shot

Sir — At a time when coronavirus cases are surging in the United States of America and India, and countries such as France and Germany are going into lockdown again, it is remarkable that Taiwan has achieved a far more favourable record — it has marked over 200 days without a locally transmitted case of Covid-19. There are so many important lessons that Western Europe and large countries like India and the US can learn from a small nation like Taiwan. Donald Trump and Narendra Modi should really be ashamed of their failures to contain the crisis in their own countries.

Malini Bose,
Calcutta