India’s ODI and Test captain Rohit Sharma is unlikely to play T20 Internationals anymore and had discussed his future in the shortest format before the start of the 50-over World Cup
Rohit Sharma, India’s ODI and Test captain is most unlikely to play T20 Internationals anymore and had discussed his future in the shortest format before the start of the 50-over World Cup, reported PTI on 22 November.
Since India’s T20 World Cup semi-final exit in November 2022, Rohit hasn’t played a single game in the shortest format, while Hardik Pandya has mostly led the Indian team in T20Is from that time.
According to stats, the 36-year-old India skipper has played 148 T20Is and scored 3853 runs at a strike-rate of nearly 140 with four centuries.
“It is not a new development. Rohit hasn’t played any T20Is in the past year as the focus was on the ODI World Cup. He had extensive discussions with the chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar in this regard. He has himself volunteered to stay away from T20Is. It has completely been Rohit’s call,” PTI quoted a senior BCCI official as saying.
After Rohit, India have four openers – Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ishan Kishan, and Ruturaj Gaikwad – and all of them are proven IPL performers.
The selectors or the BCCI brass may ask Rohit to reconsider his current stand if the younger players fail to perform.
However, it may be understood that Rohit would like to manage his workload at this stage of his career and ensure that he remains mostly injury-free for the remainder of his career.
It will be impossible for the Indian skipper to play three formats and IPL each year with seven Tests to be played between December 2023 to March 2024, as his focus will be mostly on red-ball cricket.
Rohit has a realistic chance of leading India to another World Test Championship (WTC) final in 2025. Since he started opening for India in 2019, his form in the traditional format has been superb.
With agency inputs.
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Updated: 22 Nov 2023, 09:50 PM IST