Former India head coach Ravi Shastri has said that he can see some big changes happening in the Indian team after the T20 World Cup 2022. He was hinting that it might be the last time veterans like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli play the T20I format, in order to conserve themselves for the future.
The T20 World Cup 2022 will be played in Australia from October 16 onwards and the Indian team is already in Perth getting trained and acclimatizing to the cold weather down under. They have already played one practice game against Western Australia.
Virat Kohli, 33, and Rohit Sharma, 35, are the linchpins of the Indian batting setup and with the ODI World Cup 2023 happening after a year in India, these two might leave the T20I format to lessen the workload on themselves.
Speaking at an interaction at the Mumbai Press Club on Wednesday, Shastri compared the situation with 2007 when a young MS Dhoni took command of the Indian team in T20Is, with no Tendulkar, Dravid, or Ganguly to support him and made them champions.
He said: “Come what may, I see India having a new team after this World Cup, much like the team which went in 2007—there was no Tendulkar, Dravid and Ganguly. Dhoni took the side out and won the tournament. The same thing can happen. It is not that they are not good enough, but you want them for the other two formats, there is a World Cup coming next year, so you don’t want to burden those players.”
Furthermore, Shastri spoke about how India has conceded 200 plus runs a couple of times in recent matches and said that the Men in Blue need to buck up on their fielding and some hard work needed to be put into it.
“One area that India will have to pick up and start right from the beginning is fielding. They need to work hard and get their A game on the field when they step out against Pakistan. Those 15-20 runs that you save can make all the difference because otherwise every time you get out to bat, you need to get 15-20 runs extra.
For sides like Australia, England, South Africa they field like crazy. Look at what Sri Lanka did in the Asia Cup with fielding. They won a tight game against Pakistan riding on fielding,” Shastri said.
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Shastri also reminded people that it was in his tenure that the Indian team management introduced the yo-yo test which he says was not a selection criterion but instead it helped players better their movements on the field.
He said: “The emphasis on fitness becomes very critical. In my time we had the Yo-Yo test. A lot of people laughed at it. The test was never for selection, it was for creating awareness among the players. It made a massive difference, not just in the way they played, but the way they moved on the field. What is worrying (now) is the number of times you have allowed the opposition to score over 200 runs in the last few months. People will blame the bowling, but it is also the fielding.”
(Indian Express inputs)
