The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) named former left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha as chairman of the Senior Men’s Selection Committee on 19 October 2026, with Ramesh Powar joining as the new West Zone selector. Earlier in the same month, on 6 October 2026, opener Smriti Mandhana took over as captain of the India women team across formats after Harmanpreet Kaur stepped down. The two decisions reset leadership for both selection and on-field captaincy at a crucial phase of the international calendar.
New BCCI Chief Selector: Pragyan Ojha Takes Charge
The BCCI confirmed Pragyan Ojha as chairperson of the Senior Men’s Selection Committee through a media advisory on 19 October 2026. The BCCI release stated that Ojha will chair the panel based on seniority, which is decided by the number of Test matches played. Ojha had already been serving as interim chairman after Ajit Agarkar’s tenure ended on 4 October 2026, and he chaired the selection meeting for the New Zealand tour in that interim period.
The appointment followed a formal process run by the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), the three member or two member body that interviews candidates for selector posts. The CAC, comprising Ashok Malhotra and Jatin Paranjape, met at the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai to screen and interview applicants. The CAC unanimously recommended Ramesh Powar for the vacant selector slot, and the BCCI accepted the recommendation. BCCI Honorary Secretary Devajit Saikia signed the announcement.
Pragyan Ojha represents the South Zone on the panel. He played 24 Tests, the highest Test count among current members, which gave him the chair. The full name of the cricketer is Pragyan Prayash Ojha. Born on 5 September 1986 in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, he is a left-arm orthodox spinner who played for Hyderabad in domestic cricket. His international career ran from 2008 to 2013. He retired from all forms of cricket on 21 February 2020.
Ojha’s playing record explains his seniority. In Tests, he took 113 wickets at an average of 30.26, with seven five-wicket hauls and one ten-wicket match haul. His most remembered performance came in November 2013 at Mumbai, in Sachin Tendulkar’s 200th and final Test against the West Indies, where Ojha took ten wickets in the match and was named Player of the Match. In 18 One Day Internationals (ODIs), he took 21 wickets, and in 6 Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) he took 10 wickets. In the Indian Premier League (IPL), the franchise based T20 league run by the BCCI, he played 92 matches for Deccan Chargers and Mumbai Indians and was part of the Deccan Chargers title win in 2009.
BCCI Selection Committee: Structure and Current Members
The Senior Men’s Selection Committee is a five member panel that picks the India senior men’s squads for Tests, ODIs and T20Is. Each member broadly represents a zone, which keeps regional balance in talent spotting and domestic cricket watch. The chairman is not elected by vote. The BCCI follows the rule that the selector with the most Test caps becomes chairman.
The present panel, as notified on 19 October 2026, has the following composition.
| Role | Member | Zone Link and Background |
|---|---|---|
| Chairperson | Pragyan Ojha | South Zone, 24 Tests, 18 ODIs |
| Member | Shiv Sundar Das | East Zone, former India opener |
| Member | RP Singh | Central zone link, former India left-arm pacer |
| Member | Ajay Ratra | North Zone, former India wicketkeeper |
| Member | Ramesh Powar | West Zone, 2 Tests and 31 ODIs, former India off-spinner |
Ramesh Powar, aged 48, fills the vacancy created by Agarkar’s exit. Powar played 2 Tests and 31 ODIs for India. After retirement, he built a long coaching record. He served as head coach of the India women’s team, during which India won the Asia Cup title and a Commonwealth Games silver medal, and later coached Mumbai and Gujarat and worked at the BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru. The Centre of Excellence, earlier called the National Cricket Academy, is the BCCI’s training, rehab and coaching education hub.
The change closes the tenure of Ajit Agarkar, who took charge in July 2023 and finished on 4 October 2026 without seeking an extension. Under Agarkar, India won three global white-ball titles, the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024, the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 and the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026, along with two Asia Cup titles and back-to-back Asian Games gold medals. India also reached the final of the 2023 ODI World Cup at home. Head coach Gautam Gambhir publicly praised Agarkar for a team first approach during this run.
What Is BCCI in Cricket?
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is the national governing body for cricket in India. The BCCI is the principal authority that runs men’s and women’s international teams, domestic tournaments like the Ranji Trophy, the IPL and the Women’s Premier League (WPL), and junior cricket. The BCCI was formed in December 1928, after a provisional board was created on 10 December 1927. Its headquarters, called the Cricket Centre, is located at the Wankhede Stadium in Churchgate, Mumbai. India became a Full Member of the International Cricket Council (ICC), the world governing body for cricket, in 1926, and played its first Test in 1932.
How Does BCCI Select Players?
The BCCI selects players through its zonal selection committees for men, women and juniors. For the senior men, the five selectors watch domestic and international performances, fitness reports from the Centre of Excellence, and team balance needs. They meet to finalise squads, usually with the captain and head coach present as invitees. The CAC selects the selectors themselves after interviews, and the BCCI secretary issues the final appointment.
Smriti Mandhana Becomes New India Women Captain
The BCCI named Smriti Mandhana as captain of the India women’s team on 6 October 2026 in all three formats, Tests, ODIs and T20Is. The announcement came within hours of Harmanpreet Kaur stepping down through a social media post. Mandhana, aged 30, had been Harmanpreet’s deputy for several years and was the clear successor.
Mandhana was not new to leadership. She had already led India in 18 T20Is and 4 ODIs as stand-in captain before the full-time role. In franchise cricket, she captains Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the Women’s Premier League (WPL), the BCCI’s franchise T20 league for women launched in 2023. Under her captaincy, RCB won WPL titles in 2024 and 2026. In July 2026, she had publicly said she was ready for the India captaincy and spoke about learning from Harmanpreet’s contribution.
Her first assignment as full-time captain included the home white-ball series against Zimbabwe. The BCCI named Shafali Verma as T20I vice-captain and Deepti Sharma as ODI vice-captain for that series, while Harmanpreet continued as a player. On 25 October 2026 in Vadodara, Mandhana was seen giving Harmanpreet a standing ovation after Harmanpreet scored her eighth ODI century, a moment that drew wide attention after reports of a strain in their equation.
When Did Smriti Mandhana Become Captain?
Smriti Mandhana became captain of the India women’s cricket team on 6 October 2026 across Tests, ODIs and T20Is. The BCCI confirmed her appointment hours after Harmanpreet Kaur stepped down. Mandhana, her long-term deputy since 2013, took charge on a full-time basis.
Smriti Mandhana: Career Stats and Records
The full name of the new captain is Smriti Shriniwas Mandhana. Born on 18 July 1996 in Mumbai, Maharashtra, she is a left-hand opening batter who bowls right-arm medium pace. She made her Maharashtra senior debut at age 13 and was captaining the state side by 16. Her India T20I debut came on 5 April 2013 against Bangladesh in Vadodara, followed by her ODI debut on 10 April 2013 against Bangladesh in Ahmedabad. Her Test debut came on 13 August 2014 against England at Wormsley.
Mandhana’s consistency across formats has set new benchmarks. On 3 September 2026 in Dubai, her 124 off 64 balls against Hong Kong in the Women’s T20 Asia Cup made her the all-time leading run scorer in women’s international cricket. She passed former captain Mithali Raj to reach the top. The innings also made her the batter with the most centuries in women’s internationals, with 18 hundreds, and the first Indian with multiple Women’s T20I hundreds. Her 124 remains the highest T20I score by an Indian woman.
Her career numbers show depth in every format.
| Format | Matches | Runs | Highest | Average | Hundreds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Women’s Tests | 9 | 788 | 149 | 52.53 | 2 |
| Women’s ODIs | 120 | 5411 | 136 | 47 plus | Multiple |
| Women’s T20Is | 174 | 4751 plus | 124 | High 30s | Multiple |
| WPL for RCB | 35 | 1023 | 96 | 31.00 | 0 (7 fifties) |
In September 2026, her combined international tally crossed 10,880 runs, with 93 fifty-plus scores across formats. She also holds the Indian record for most sixes in Women’s T20Is, going past Harmanpreet. Beyond internationals, she has played for Brisbane Heat in the Women’s Big Bash League and for Southern Brave and other sides in The Hundred in England.
Harmanpreet Kaur Era Ends: Outgoing Captain Career Review
Harmanpreet Kaur stepped down on 6 October 2026 at age 37 with the statement that she had done her duty and now wanted to play for the love of the game. She continues as a player. Her leadership reshaped India’s women’s cricket over a decade. She led India in 5 Tests, 51 ODIs and 155 T20Is.
The peak came in November 2025 at home, when Harmanpreet captained India to its maiden ICC Women’s ODI World Cup title. She became only the third Indian captain after Kapil Dev and MS Dhoni to win a 50-over World Cup. India had lost finals in 2005 and 2017, and Harmanpreet herself had scored an unbeaten 171 off 115 balls against Australia in the 2017 semi-final, the third highest score in World Cup history. The 2025 win closed that long wait.
Her other team milestones include successive Asian Games gold medals in 2023 and 2026 in Nagoya, a record eighth Asia Cup title in September 2026, Asia Cup wins in 2016 and 2022, and a landmark 270-run Test win over England at Lord’s in July 2026, the first women’s Test at the ground. Her last match as captain was on 22 September 2026, when India sealed the Asian Games title again. She remains one of India’s most powerful hitters, with the highest individual ODI score record among Indians and eight ODI hundreds, the latest in Vadodara against Zimbabwe on 25 October 2026.
When Did Harmanpreet Kaur Become Captain?
Harmanpreet Kaur first captained India in 2012 as stand-in and became full-time T20I captain in 2016. She took over the ODI and Test teams in 2022 after Mithali Raj retired. She led across formats until stepping down on 6 October 2026.
Former India Women Captains: From Diana Edulji to Mithali Raj
India’s women’s captaincy line runs through Diana Edulji, one of the pioneers who led in the late 1970s and 1980s and later served as a member of the Committee of Administrators that ran the BCCI. The modern era was defined by Mithali Dorai Raj. Mithali made her ODI debut in 1999 at age 16 and led India for over a decade, taking the team to World Cup finals in 2005 and 2017. She retired in June 2022 as the leading ODI run scorer of her time. Harmanpreet took the T20I charge in 2016 and the full-time ODI and Test charge after Mithali’s retirement, before handing the role to Mandhana. The list of India women captains therefore moves from Edulji to Mithali to Harmanpreet to Mandhana, each marking a distinct phase of growth.
Key Takeaways
- The BCCI named Pragyan Ojha as chairman of the Senior Men’s Selection Committee on 19 October 2026 after Ajit Agarkar’s tenure ended on 4 October 2026.
- The five member men’s panel comprises Pragyan Ojha, Shiv Sundar Das, RP Singh, Ajay Ratra and Ramesh Powar, with Powar joining as West Zone selector.
- Smriti Mandhana became captain of the India women’s team across formats on 6 October 2026, succeeding Harmanpreet Kaur.
- Mandhana became the leading run scorer in women’s international cricket in September 2026 with 124 against Hong Kong in Dubai and holds 18 international hundreds.
- Harmanpreet Kaur led India to its maiden ICC Women’s ODI World Cup title in November 2025 and led in 5 Tests, 51 ODIs and 155 T20Is.
- The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), formed in December 1928, is headquartered at the Cricket Centre, Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
