edited by: Suramya Kaushik
Last Update: January 06, 2023, 13:17 IST
Team India head coach Rahul Dravid (AFP Image)
Rahul Dravid said that Team India is looking to field a young T20I team with a focus on the seniors in the ODI format with an eye on the 50-over World Cup to be held at home later this year.
Team India head coach Rahul Dravid has given strong indications of building a young team while holding the next T20. World Cup in mind in 2024. with senior players like Virat Kohli And with Rohit Sharma out of the T20I squad against Sri Lanka, Dravid talked about Team India’s plan to build a young squad.
Addressing a press conference after India’s defeat in the second T20I against Sri Lanka, Dravid said the focus of the senior players would mostly be on the ODI format as the 50-over World Cup is coming up at home later this year.
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“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 in a slightly different phase looking at the next cycle of T20s, so our team is a bit young and it is a great experience for us to play against the quality of Sri Lanka. The good thing is that there is a lot of focus on the ODI World Cup and the World Test Championship, so T20 gives us an opportunity to try these guys,” Dravid said.
After India’s semi-final exit from the T20 World Cup, a debate erupted over the ousting of senior players from the T20I squad. Though Dravid didn’t name anyone specifically it was quite clear India Have decided to look ahead to T20Is and are looking to form a new young team.
Notably, out of the Indian XI that played against Sri Lanka on Thursday, only Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav, Akshar Patel and Arshdeep Singh were part of the team that lost to England by 10 wickets. Last year in the semi-finals of the World Cup. Pandya has now taken up the role of captain, though no official announcement has been made regarding his promotion, but most likely he will lead the side in most of the T20Is.
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In such a situation, if you look at the T20 team against Sri Lanka, it is full of youngsters. In the first T20I, Shivam Mavi and Shubman Gill got their first call ups. Then, in the second T20I, Rahul Tripathi got a chance to play for the national side and then Jitesh Sharma was called up in place of Sanju Samson. Overall, India is getting closer to setting up the team with a view to 2024.
However, it is to be noted that both Kohli and Rohit will feature in the ODI series against Sri Lanka starting January 10. This justifies Dravid’s point in which he mentioned how the team is concerned about senior players getting more playing time in the 50- over format.
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