BCCI names Parvinder Awana as Junior Selection Committee chairperson
BCCI hands Awana the reins of junior selection
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Friday appointed former India fast bowler Parvinder Awana as chairperson of its Junior Selection Committee, putting the 62-cap first-class seamer in charge of the panel that will shape the country's age-group squads.
Awana's name was recommended by the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), which interviewed applicants before forwarding its choices to the board. Krishna Das, Rakesh Patel and N. Arjun Yadav were named as members of the committee, with a fifth member to be appointed shortly.
"The Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) conducted a selection process for the appointment of members to the Junior Cricket Committee. The CAC screened and interviewed applicants and, following the process, recommended the appointment of Parvinder Awana as Chairman, along with Krishna Das, Rakesh Patel and N. Arjun Yadav as members of the Committee," the BCCI said in a statement.
The CAC carrying out the process comprised former India internationals Ashok Malhotra and Jatin Paranjape, with the panel conducting interviews before making its recommendations.
A committee of former first-class workhorses
Parvinder Awana played two T20Is for India and featured in 62 first-class matches, taking 191 wickets. He represented Delhi, India A and Rest of India during his playing career and also turned out in the IPL for Kings XI Punjab, now Punjab Kings. After retiring, he moved into coaching, working with Delhi's U16, U19 and U23 teams as well as India U19 and various BCCI and Centre of Excellence (COE) high-performance programmes.
Krishna Das, a former fast bowler who represented Assam and Goa, played 49 first-class matches and took 166 wickets. He also represented India U19 and India A before moving into coaching, later serving as bowling coach of the India U19 team and of the Uttarakhand Ranji Trophy side.
Rakesh Patel represented Gujarat and Baroda and played for India A, also featuring in the Duleep Trophy, Deodhar Trophy and Irani Trophy. After his playing career he coached Baroda and Gujarat across the U19, U23 and senior levels, and was head coach of the Baroda U23 team in the 2025-26 season.
N. Arjun Yadav represented India A and played 83 first-class matches. He was part of India's U19 World Cup-winning squad in 2000. After playing for Hyderabad, Yadav took up coaching and went on to serve as head coach of the Hyderabad senior and U23 teams, and has worked as a BCCI match referee since 2022.
Part of a wider selection overhaul
The junior panel appointment follows a broader reshuffle of the board's selection machinery. In reporting dated October 20, 2026, Cricbuzz detailed the BCCI's decision to elevate Pragyan Ojha as chairman of the senior men's selection committee — a continuity-first call in a World Cup year — while Ramesh Powar had been flagged as the favoured successor to Ajit Agarkar on that panel in reporting dated October 18, 2026. Those same earlier reports had tipped Dodda Ganesh to head the junior selection committee; that position has now gone to Awana.
With four members confirmed and one seat still to be filled, the reconstituted Junior Cricket Committee is now formally in place ahead of the board's upcoming age-group assignments.