Indian cricket is often accused of having a short-term memory, especially around IPL season. And it’s generally the national selectors who get flagged for it the most. On Monday though, despite MSK Prasad & Co announcing a whopping six separate squads across all three formats, there are few holes you can pick in the final outcome of this mass selection exercise.

They don’t seem to have been swayed too much by IPL performances or their quest to win in England. At the same time, they have fairly paid due diligence to both. Ambati Rayudu and Siddarth Kaul may have forced their way into the ODI and T20 squads owing to the starry roles with bat and ball for their respective IPL franchises. The same form over reputation approach also holds true for the returns of KL Rahul and Umesh Yadav while Ajinkya Rahane and Jaydev Unadkat miss out. But the selectors have chosen to stick with their long-term investment in Washington Sundar as their spinning all-rounder in spite of a tepid IPL campaign and Krunal Pandya’s annual reminder over the summer of his match-winning prowess with bat and ball. The younger Pandya brother, Hardik will fly to England with India A for the one-day tri-series. Even the decision to bring back MS Dhoni for Rishabh Pant in the T20 squad doesn’t look untoward in this case, considering his rediscovery in the IPL.

There were reports of the selectors off-loading a number of Test regulars to the “A” squad so that they get extra time in England — like Virat Kohli has chosen to do by opting to sign up for Surrey to prepare for the big series coming up.

But the only ones in addition to the captain who’ll miss out on being part of Afghanistan’s maiden Test match will be fast bowlers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah, who’ll get a deserved break following a hectic year so far. When it came to finding a replacement for Kohli though, they chose to give Karun Nair, who’s played only 3 Tests following his 303, a recall. It’s Rohit Sharma who gets the axe instead. Cheteshwar Pujara and Ishant Sharma too will be taking a break from their county stints to face the Afghans, making it a more or less a full-strength Indian Test squad with Rahane at the helm. The same prudence and objectivity comes through in the selection for the India A squads, whether it’s the decision to throw under-19 World Cup stars Prithvi Shaw and Shubman Gill into the deep end or rewarding Ranji Trophy stars Mayank Agarwal and Rajneesh Gurbani.

TEAMS:

India ‘A’ team for One-Day tri-series in the UK: Shreyas Iyer (capt), Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, Shubman Gill, Hanuma Vihari, Sanju Samson, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant, Vijay Shankar, K. Gowtham, Axar Patel, Krunal Pandya, Prasidh Krishna, Deepak Chahar, Khaleel Ahmed, Shardul Thakur.

India ‘A’ team for four-day matches in the UK: Karun Nair (capt), R. Samarth, Mayank Agarwal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Prithvi Shaw, Hanuma Vihari, Ankit Bawne, Vijay Shankar, KS Bharat, Jayant Yadav, Shahbaz Nadeem, Ankit Rajpoot, Mohammad Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Rajneesh Gurbani

India team for one-off Test against Afghanistan: Ajinkya Rahane (Capt), Shikhar Dhawan, M Vijay, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Karun Nair, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Hardik Pandya, Ishant Sharma, Shardul Thakur

India Squad for two-match T20I series against Ireland: Virat Kohli (Capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Suresh Raina, Manish Pandey, MS Dhoni(wk), Dinesh Karthik, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Siddharth Kaul, Umesh Yadav

India Squad for three-match T20I series against England: Virat Kohli (Capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Suresh Raina, Manish Pandey, MS Dhoni(wk), Dinesh Karthik, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Siddharth Kaul, Umesh Yadav

India Squad for three-match ODI series against England: Virat Kohli (Capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni(wk), Dinesh Karthik, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Siddharth Kaul, Umesh Yadav.