Brought in youngsters to replace seniors to make India No.1 in all formats: Saba Karim

Karim said, "We came in as national cricket selectors in 2012, a year after India had won the ODI World Cup. There were a number of senior players with immense contribution to the team's success. But after winning the 2011 World Cup, India had lost a few series.

"So we had a vision on what we wanted to do in the next four years and that was to see India becoming No.1 team across all three formats of the game. We chose to select players who had high fitness levels, besides talent and skills, and slowly included them in the team. And eventually we met our goal of becoming number one in Tests, ODIs as well as Twenty20 cricket," in a discussion organised by Pro Wrestling League (PWL) on Friday, reported PTI.

Senior players like Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir, and Zaheer Khan contributed in India's incredible run to the final and lifting the World Cup in 2011. However, the players were slowly phased out of the national team one after the other. Sehwag and Zaheer retired last year from all forms of cricket with the former expressing his hurt at being dropped unceremoniously without a farewell match. The answer by Karim only reveals the tough decisions the selectors make with sentiments at stake.

Karim had earlier also spoken about how he lost friends because he was doing a tough job that did not allow relationships to come in the way of his decisions.

At the event, Karim also talked about how ultimate game plan and implementation are the more important factors to achieve the goal but pointed out that Indians instead harp disproportionately on innovation and growth in sports, reported PTI.