It has been rumored that both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are now not certainties in India’s T20I team, and both will need to prove their form in the IPL 2024 to be selected for the T20 World Cup 2024.
The T20 World Cup 2024 will kick-start on June 4th in the West Indies and the USa, which will be about only a week after the IPL 2024 concludes in the end of May.
Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have been great servants of the T20I team for the past decade and more. They are the two leading T20I run-scorers of all-time. But now is the right time to move on from both of them in the shortest format.
3 reasons why Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma should not be picked in the T20 World Cup 2024 squad:
Give youngsters the experience of ICC tournament; allow Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli to focus on other two formats
Rohit and Kohli both missed getting their hands on an ICC trophy by a whisker when India lost the World Cup 2023 final to Australia. Kohli won the 2011 World Cup and Rohit the 2007 T20 World Cup. Given their ages, both might carry on playing in the ODI format till 2025 Champions Trophy, Kohli, given his fitness, could even play till 2027 ODI World Cup.
Plus there are very important Test series lined up – a 5-Test series in Australia – which carry WTC points, after the T20 World Cup. Both can reach the WTC 2025 final. It will be better for Indian cricket that both Rohit and Kohli put their energies and focus and reinforce their techniques for the two longer formats, while allow youngsters like Jaiswal and Gaikwad get their first experience of an ICC tournament.
India don’t need two anchors in T20I team
Both Rohit and Kohli, and KL Rahul, have gotten criticism for their sub-par strike rates in T20Is. England and West Indies have shown that attacking is the only way to go in the T20 format, yet Rohit and Kohli have maintained strike rates of 125-135 even in this era in T20 cricket.
A team like England, who won the T20 World Cup last year, doesn’t even like to have one anchor batsman in their side, and India have been carrying three of them in their T20 XIs over the years.
Both Rohit and Kohli haven’t played a single T20I for a year
Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have not featured in a single T20I match since last year’s semi-final loss to England. They have also taken a break from the 3-T20I series in South Africa. They are unlikely to play the 3 T20Is vs Afghanistan because of it being sandwiched between the Tests in South Africa and against England at home. Do the selectors really want to take players to the T20 World Cup who won’t have played a T20I for over 18 months?
