Former South Africa player Graeme Smith shared that shortlisting the Indian squad for the T20I World Cup will be a tough task for the selectors, considering the pool of talent they have for a spot. The Indian team’s upcoming home series against Afghanistan will be their final series in the T20 format before the mega event and it will give some insight as to how the selectors want to proceed.

While some players are rested, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have returned to the T20I setup. However, they last played in the 2022 T20 World Cup semi-final defeat against England at the Adelaide Oval. KL Rahul, whose last T20I game was also the same, was not selected by the selectors.

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Speaking of the Indian squad and the selection of players, Graeme Smith was quoted by ANI saying: “It’s about balancing workloads and introducing new players at various times, giving opportunity to the player with the amount of cricket India plays. We have seen IPL produce a serious amount of talent for India in this format.”

However, Team India played a five-match T20I series in the Caribbean in 2023 with the second-string squad, a series that they lost by 3-2 as well While the West Indies and the United States of America (USA) will jointly host the tournament, India’s group stage matches are scheduled to be held entirely in the USA. India’s three-match home T20I series against Afghanistan will begin on January 11.

“I think the selection panel and coaches have to figure out what stars they want and what squad they want to take from India to play on those types of pitches. We will have to see how they will compile the squad. With the amount of talent that India has now, it is a difficult choice to make. I think balancing some experience with youth …. also how they go about that,” Smith further added.