Rahul Dravid on Rohit, Virat and Rahul T20Is future

With Hardik Pandya at the helm, India’s T20I team has officially begun its transitional phase, as since India’s elimination from the T20 World Cup in Australia last year, regular skipper Rohit Sharma, senior pros Virat Kohli, and KL Rahul have not participated in a single T20I series. Let us look at details on Rahul Dravid on Rohit, Virat and Rahul T20Is future.

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Hardik Pandya led the team against Sri Lanka in New Zealand and will again lead them in the forthcoming three-match T20I series against New Zealand at home. Although three series can serve as a fair benchmark for assessing the future course, India’s head coach Rahul Dravid is hesitant to name Hardik as the T20Is captain right now.

The former captain of India passed the ball back to the selection committee when he was questioned about split captaincy in Indian cricket.

“Not that I am aware of (India adopting split captaincy). That’s a question you need to ask the selectors but as of now, I don’t think so,” Dravid said at the pre-match press conference ahead of the 3rd ODI between India and New Zealand.

Rohit Sharma to focus more on 50-over cricket

To be clear, Rohit Sharma has stated that he has no intention of stopping T20Is. In order to limit their workload and focus more on ODIs as the 50-over ODI World Cup is scheduled to be contested in India later this year, Rohit and Kohli were not selected for these T20 Internationals, according to Dravid, who further clarified the probable plans of the Indian cricket squad.

“There are certain priorities we need to give to certain white-ball tournaments,” Dravid said. “So the priority after last year’s T20 World Cup has been these six games and Virat has played all these six games and he will get a bit of a break along with Rohit,” Dravid said, referring to the ODIs against Sri Lanka and New Zealand.

India doesn’t have many T20Is this year after the New Zealand series. The Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which consists of four Test matches against Australia, will come into spotlight, then the IPL.

Asia Cup and World Cup in 2023

Then, two significant multi-nation competitions, the 50-over versions of the Asia Cup and World Cup, will take place.

But Dravid’s responses appear to go against what he said during the ODIs against Sri Lanka. He had made it quite obvious that India had abandoned its previous lineup and had begun to prepare for the upcoming T20 World Cup in the West Indies.

“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,” he had said.