Ajay Ratra joins the selection panel headed by Ajit Agarkar

The need for a new selector in the committee arose after Agarkar’s appointment as chairman led to a deviation from the convention of electing one selector from each region (north, south, east, west and central).

Ratra, who played six Tests and 12 ODIs in 2002, comes with a rich career in the coaching role. He has been involved as head coach with Assam, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, and was recently part of VVS Laxman’s interim coaching staff for the ODI series in South Africa late last year, just after the 50-over World Cup.

Ratra was involved in various training programs for senior and junior women’s teams. In 2021, he was part of Ricky Ponting’s coaching staff, as one of the assistant coaches, at Delhi Capitals.

Ratra is best remembered for his unbeaten 115 against the West Indies in the 2002 Antigua Test, when he became the youngest wicketkeeper to score a Test century. He was also in the team led by Mohammed Kaif that lifted the Under 19 World Cup in Sri Lanka. In all, he scored 4029 first-class runs in 99 matches with eight hundreds and 17 half-centuries.