With the new year, the focus has shifted to the T20 World Cup, a title, which India haven’t won since its inaugural edition in 2007. Since the last T20 World Cup, several senior players including Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have given the shortest format a miss, also keeping the ODI World Cup in mind. Now that the 50-over World Cup is done, the spotlight is on the two seniors and whether they will play in the T20 World Cup or not, especially since the youngsters who have been given a run for a year now in the shortest format have made a place of their own in the team.
As per a PTI report, both Kohli and Rohit want to play in the T20 World Cup and hence the chief selector Ajit Agarkar will be leaving for South Africa to have a chat with both of them and get a clearer picture ahead of the T20 series against Afghanistan, the IPL and then the T20 World Cup. The report further suggested that there could be a new captain for the T20 series against Afghanistan given both Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya are injured.
“Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya aren’t fit. The Afghanistan series won’t tell you anything. Everything will be decided based on the first month of IPL,” a senior BCCI source was quoted as saying.
The report stated that the BCCI and the selectors will keep an eye on approximately 25-30 T20 specialists during the IPL before a final call is made before the announcement of the squad for the T20 World Cup. The 9th edition of the T20 World Cup to be played in the Caribbean and the United States is set to kick off on June 4 and will end with the final on June 30, in a window immediately after the IPL.