Sandeep Patil and the life of an Indian chief selector

In the Open magazine, Akshay Sawai pieces together a profile of Sandeep Patil, the BCCI's chairman of selectors. Sawai talks to Patil's former team-mates and predecessors to outline the challenges the latter faced, specially around the issue of Sachin Tendulkar's retirement.

Patil's actions and statements had shown he was not afraid to drop big names. Earlier this year, he left out Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir from the team. He and the selection committee also picked the find of this season - Shikhar Dhawan. And about Tendulkar he once told the Times of India, "If Sachin wants to bat like this (defensively), then he should quit. But if he wants to bat like the Sachin of old, then he should keep playing. And please put this on record."