Srinagar: Team India coach Rahul Dravid seem to have hinted out that senior players Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma may not be future plans of team in T20 format.
Both Virat and Rohit aren’t part India’s T20 series against Sri Lanka. In their absence Hardik Pandya is leading the side.
On Thursday after India suffered against Lanka in second T20I, Rahul Dravid while speaking with media gave strong hint of building a young team keeping the next T20 World Cup in 2024 in mind.
Dravid did not name anyone but he was quite clear that India have decided to look ahead in T20Is.
“For us, obviously, from the last semi-final (in the T20 World Cup) that we played against England, only 3-4 boys are playing in the XI (against Sri Lanka). We are slightly in a different stage of looking at the next cycle of T20, so ours is a slightly younger team and for us to play against the quality of Sri Lanka is a fantastic experience. The good thing is that a lot of focus is on the ODI World Cup and World Test Championship, so the T20s give us the opportunity to try out these guys,” Dravid told reporters after India lost to Sri Lanka in the 2nd T20I in Pune.
As said by Dravid, from Indian XI that played against Sri Lanka on Thursday, only Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav, Axar Patel, and Arshdeep Singh were the ones that were part of the team that suffered a 10-wicket loss to England in the World Cup semi-final last year.
Hardik Pandya has led India in the two T20I series that they have played against New Zealand and Sri Lanka since the World Cup.