The Indian skipper, Rohit Sharma missed the just-concluded T20I series against Sri Lanka with Hardik Pandya being named the captain. It led to the speculation that going forward Rohit will be captaining the Indian team only in ODIs and Tests in what seemed to be a transitional phase for Indian cricket. However, Rohit has now cleared the air over his T20I future ahead of the ODI series against Sri Lanka, starting on Tuesday. He has said that he has “not decided to give up” in the format.
During the pre-match press conference, Rohit Sharma said, “We have only six T20Is, three are over. So we’ll manage, you know to look after those boys till IPL. Then we’ll see what happens after the IPL. But certainly, I’ve not decided to give up the format. At the moment I think it was made clear in the past that it’s a 50-over World Cup year for us.”
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H further added, “And for some of the guys, it’s not possible to play all formats. If you look at the schedule, there were back-to-back matches, so we decided on just look at some players’ workloads that we wanted to make sure that they get enough break time and manage them. I definitely fall in that (category) as well.”
Rohit Sharma also revealed the reason why Jasprit Bumrah was ruled out of the ODI series on the eve of the first ODI. He said, “Jasprit Bumrah felt stiffness while bowling at nets in National Cricket Academy.”
The Indian skipper said that Shubman Gill will be his opening partner for the opening game of the series against Sri Lanka in Guwahati. He said, “Unfortunately we won’t be able to play Ishan Kishan. We have to give Gill a fair run.”
In the ODIs, the return of old guards Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, and also Shreyas Iyer will give the hosts a huge boost. India has a packed ODI calendar – 15 games excluding the Asia Cup – in the 10-month window in the build-up to the World Cup 2023 in October-November.
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However, the key will be to not just get the balance right but also manage the workload in the midst of the IPL and the highly-anticipated 4-match Test series against Australia. But another injury scare to Bumrah will have a huge impact on the plans of the team management. There also lies the problem of plenty in picking the top-five batters.
