New appointments by BCCI: Who are Ramesh Powar and Pragyan Ojha of selection committee and 5-member panel | Profile

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has reconstituted their men's senior selection committee, appointing former India off-spinner Ramesh Powar as a member and naming Pragyan Ojha as the chairman of the five-member panel on Monday.

Powar's appointment followed a selection process conducted by the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), comprising Ashok Malhotra and Jatin Paranjape. The committee interviewed applicants at the BCCI headquarters before unanimously recommending Powar for the position.

Ojha, who was already a member of the selection committee, will lead the panel based on seniority, determined by the number of Test matches played for India. He succeeds Ajit Agarkar, who stepped down after serving as chairman since July 2023.

Born on 20 May, 1978, In Mumbai (Then called Bombay), Ramesh Powar is a former India international who represented the country as an off-spinner. He played two Tests and 31 ODIs during his international career.

Powar made his Test debut against Australia in Bengaluru in October 2004 and his ODI debut against Sri Lanka in November 2004. He also represented Mumbai in domestic cricket and built a career spanning the domestic and international levels.

After his playing career, Powar moved into coaching and took up several significant assignments. He served as head coach of the Indian women's cricket team and also worked with domestic sides Mumbai and Gujarat. He subsequently held the role of bowling coach at the BCCI Centre of Excellence.

His tenure as head coach of the Indian women's team included an Asia Cup title and a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games. His experience working with international players, domestic teams and the board's coaching structure will form part of his background as he joins the men's selection committee.

Powar's appointment adds a former international spinner with coaching experience to a panel responsible for selecting India's squads across formats and assessing players for future assignment.

In the IPL, he has played for Kings XI Punjab (Now Punjab Kings) and the now-defunct Kochi Tuskers Kerala.

Pragyan Ojha is a former India left-arm orthodox spinner who represented the national team in all three international formats. Born on 5 September, 1986, in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, he emerged through domestic cricket with Hyderabad before establishing himself at the international level.

Ojha made his ODI debut against Bangladesh in the 2008 Asia Cup and played his first Test against Sri Lanka in November 2009. He became part of India's spin-bowling options during a period when the team regularly relied on specialist spinners in home conditions.

One of the defining moments of his international career came in November 2013, when he played in Sachin Tendulkar's farewell Test against the West Indies at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium. Ojha claimed 10 wickets in the match, including five in each innings, and was named Player of the Match.

He also played in the Indian Premier League, representing franchises including Deccan Chargers and Mumbai Indians. Ojha announced his retirement from all forms of cricket in February 2020.

Ojha joined the BCCI men's selection committee in September 2025. He had taken over as the interim chairman of selectors in late September when Agarkar was unavailable. His elevation to chairperson now places him at the head of the panel that will oversee selections for India's senior men's team.

PN Vishnu is a contributor with the LiveMint Sports team, where he primarily covers cricket, football and other major sporting events. A passionate sports journalist with nearly a decade of experience in digital media, Vishnu has been an ardent follower of sports for more than 10 years. While he enjoys covering a wide range of disciplines, his biggest sporting passions remain cricket and football. He is also a devoted supporter of Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the Indian Premier League and Manchester United in English football. <br><br> Vishnu pursued a Post Graduate Diploma in Journalism from the Asian College of Journalism (ACJ), Chennai, in 2016 and graduated in 2017. Since then, he has built an extensive career in sports journalism, working with leading media organisations including Deccan Chronicle and Firstpost. In 2025, he worked for CricXtasy for six months before joining LiveMint in February 2026. <br><br> Over the years, he has reported extensively on marquee sporting events such as the Indian Premier League (IPL) and the Indian Super League (ISL). His reporting has also provided opportunities to interact with some of the game's leading personalities, including India cricketers Yuzvendra Chahal and Dhruv Jurel. <br><br> Away from the newsroom, Vishnu enjoys unwinding with books, discovering new music and binge-watching television series.