Former India cricketer Mohammad Kaif has expressed his disappointment with the team selectors for appointing Shreyas Iyer as captain and Tilak Varma as vice-captain.Speaking on his YouTube channel, Kaif said the two batters did not deserve a guaranteed place in the playing XI but were still handed leadership roles. Calling Tilak’s selection a “50-50 call”, Kaif argued that making Iyer and Varma captain and vice-captain ultimately led to Sanju Samson‘s exclusion.“You have made two players the captain and vice-captain, who probably don’t even deserve a guaranteed place in the playing XI every match. Yes, Tilak is a 50-50 call. He has won matches and played well. I’m not denying that. But the problem is that you no longer have any flexibility. Once you make them captain and vice-captain, they are automatically undroppable. And because of that, you’re ending up dropping Sanju,” Kaif said.Kaif further said the people who appointed Iyer as captain should be questioned, adding that he could not recall a player making a direct comeback to the T20I side as captain.“That’s why I feel dropping Sanju was a huge decision. You could have managed the situation differently. If Shreyas Iyer hadn’t been the captain, you could have told him, ‘You’ve done well and earned your place back in the team, but right now there’s no spot for you in the playing XI. Wait for your opportunity. Stay with the squad, and we’ll see how things go.“First, we’ll give these three players (Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, and Samson) a chance.’ The people who made this decision deserve to be questioned. I don’t think this has ever happened in Indian cricket history, where someone who wasn’t even part of the T20 team comes straight back as the captain. I don’t think that’s ever happened before,” he added.In the ongoing T20I series against England, Iyer has scored 110 runs, while Tilak has amassed 40 runs. The duo will continue to lead India in the fourth match of the five-match T20I series on Thursday.
