SMAT 2025: Ajit Agarkar posted in Ahmedabad to oversee matches amid scrutiny on selectors

Ajit Agarkar, Chairman of the Senior Men’s Selection Committee, is currently on domestic duty in Ahmedabad. He has been in the city since November 26th, along with former India coach and seasoned Mumbai Indians scout John Wright.

Ajit Agarkar has recently faced criticism for giving international matches more weight than domestic matches.

He has been tasked with overseeing Group D fixtures of the national 20-over competition.

Agarkar and his panel have been under the pump for selecting players in the Test setup based on white-ball performances and preferring all-rounders over specialist players. The most-recent example has been the selection of Sai Sudharsan and Nitish Kumar Reddy in the Test squad for the series against South Africa.

Meanwhile, former Indian cricketer Pragyan Ojha, also a part of the selection panel, is travelling with the Indian team for their three-match ODI series against South Africa. SS Das, RP Singh and Ajay Ratra have been placed on SMAT duty in Kolkata, Lucknow and Hyderabad, respectively.

Like Wright, a lot of franchise scouts are also out across venues for the SMAT. Varun Aaron, Parthiv Patel, Kiran More and Vijay Bharadwaj have also marked their presence in Ahmedabad. For the unversed, Wright scouted Jasprit Bumrah for MI from domestic cricket. He is currently actively involved in evaluating up-and-coming talent ahead of the IPL 2026 auction, which is set to take place on December 16.

Karnataka, Delhi, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Saurashtra, Uttarakhand and Tripura currently playing across venues in Ahmedabad, which is why the city has drawn more eyeballs and attention than the rest of the venues where the SMAT matches are being played.