India’s newly-appointed head coach Gautam Gambhir is all set to begin his highly-anticipated tenure with the white-ball tour of Sri Lanka, starting on July 27.
Ahead of the team’s departure to Sri Lanka on July 22, Gambhir addressed a press conference, where he backed India’s star batters Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma to continue playing until 2027 World Cup.
Gambhir said both Kohli and Rohit have a lot of cricket left in them and will be integral part of India's ODI and Test set-up during his stint.
Notably, the legendary duo announced their T20I retirement after winning the T20 World Cup last month.
“They have shown what they can deliver at the big stage. Whether it is the T20 World Cup or the ODI World Cup. I think both of them have lot more cricket left in them. We’ve got the Champions Trophy, a tour of Australia, so they will be motivated. If they keep their fitness then even the 2027 World Cup. To answer how much cricket is left in them is difficult. Any team that has players of their class would love to have them for as long as possible,” Gambhir told reporters.
When asked if the teams across the three formats would look different, Gautam Gambhir replied in negative.
“Going forward these things (retirements) happen. Can’t say right now that there are going to be three different teams. T20 will be in transition with world class players retiring. The more players that can play both all formats the better,” he remarked.
The head coach also mentioned that Kohli and Rohit will play most of India's important matches in ODIs and Tests from hereon, emphasizing that they can manage their workload better following retirement from the shortest format.
“I’ve said it before, workload management for someone like Jasprit (Bumrah) is important. He is one rare bowler, which anyone would want. You want him to play important games. That’s why the workload management for not just him but fast bowlers is important,” Gambhir said.
“If you are a batter, who’s batting well, you might as well just play all formats. Rohit and Virat have retired from T20Is now, so they will play two formats from now. Hopefully they are available for most of the games,” he added.
India will play three T20Is and as many ODIs on the tour of Sri Lanka, starting on July 27.
India’s T20I Squad: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Shubman Gill (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rinku Singh, Riyan Parag, Rishabh Pant (WK), Sanju Samson (WK), Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Akshar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Khaleel Ahmed, Mohammed Siraj
India’s ODI Squad: Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill (VC), Virat Kohli, KL Rahul (WK), Rishabh Pant (WK), Shreyas Iyer, Shivam Dube, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Washington Sundar, Arshdeep Singh, Riyan Parag, Akshar Patel, Khaleel Ahmed, Harshit Rana
(The Indian Express Inputs)
