LUCKNOW, Sept. 10 -- Former India fast bowler Praveen Kumar has expressed his desire to join the Ajit Agarkar-led senior men's selection committee. He officially applied for the post from the Central Zone on Monday, just days before the expiry of the deadline. The development came amid reports of him not applying for the post. The 38-year-old bowler from Meerut, too, confirmed his application. "Last evening, I applied for the post of a national selector from the Central Zone," Kumar told HT on Tuesday just before spotting the probables for UP's Ranji team at the state trials at the Kamla Club Ground in Kanpur as chief of the senior selection committee of the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association. "I applied for the post only after discussing this with my high-ups in the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association," said Kumar, who will replace former India pacer Subroto Banerjee if he is appointed to the post by the Board of Control for Cricket in India. Kumar, who played six Tests, 68 ODIs and 10 T20Is for India and picked up 112 wickets from 2007 to 2012, will be the fourth cricketer from Uttar Pradesh to become a national selector if his application comes through. Former Ranji Trophy cricketer Anand Shukla was the first person in the national selection panel from Uttar Pradesh. He was followed by former Test player Gopal Sharma and former Central Zone cricketer Rajinder Singh Hans. Two other former cricketers from Uttar Pradesh, Ram Prakash Bhardwaj and Gyanendra Pandey, were part of the junior national selection panel in the past. For the new selection panel, the BCCI's description says that the applicants for the senior men's selection committee must have retired from cricket at least five years before. The ideal applicant should have played a minimum of seven Tests or 30 first-class matches, or ten ODIs and 20 first-class matches. It also adds that the applicants shouldn't have been part of any BCCI Cricket Committee for five years. Apart from Agarkar, SS Das and Ajay Ratra are the other members of the senior men's selection committee. Besides Kumar from Uttar Pradesh, former left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha, too, has applied for the post from the South Zone. Ojha played 24 Tests, 18 ODIs, and six T20Is for India from 2008 to 2013 and took 144 wickets at the international level. As of now, S Sharath has been the South Zone representative since January 2023-a panel he was promoted to after serving as the junior selection committee chairman from September 2021. The BCCI has also opened applications for four vacancies in the women's national selection committee and one spot in the junior men's selection committee. The last date to apply for them is also September 10....