In the international season prior to IPL, there were plenty of talks from India captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Rahul Dravid about building the side for the T20 World Cup 2022, which will be played in Australia in October-November.
Pressure on the Men In Blue will once again be immense, this time particularly more because of their group-stage exit last year in the UAE.
Amid the ongoing IPL 2022, one Twitter user, by the handle of @cricBC, opined that the Indian T20I team for the T20 World Cup would be better off without Rohit Sharma, the captain, and Virat Kohli, the former captain and one of the premier batter in the country.
He cited the example of the Indian team under MS Dhoni that won the 2007 T20 World Cup, pointing out that the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, all longer format legends, were omitted from the T20 squad and youngsters with more fearlessness were chosen and they delivered the title in grand fashion.
This fan outright believes that India will win the T20 World Cup again only if the selectors have the boldness to drop Rohit and Kohli, who have been criticised in the recent past for their conservative game. Both are anchor type batters who look to solidify their innings early on before teeing off later on. However, many believe that this approach is outdated in the shortest format and India needs to fill up the batting order with power-hitters and batsmen who are aggressive from the start of their innings.
“India won their first T20 world cup when they selected a team without Sachin, Ganguly, Dravid. A young team with the right skillset. India will win their next T20 world cup when someone shows the guts to send a team without Kohli, Rohit. A team of proven in-form IPL performers,” @cricBC tweeted.
The user further gave examples of Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh in the 2014, 2016 T20 World Cup and even feels MS Dhoni was a baggage in the 2019 World Cup. He asserted that all these big-name players are undroppable by the selectors.
“Almost every big name in India ends up playing one world cup too many. Yuvraj and Harbhajan both weren’t great choices in 2014 and 2016 WT20. Dhoni was dicey in 2019. Hopefully Rohit and Virat would know when it’s time to give way to youngsters coz selectors won’t take that call,” the fan added.
Almost every big name in India ends up playing one world cup too many. Yuvraj and Harbhajan both weren’t great choices in 2014 and 2016 WT20. Dhoni was dicey in 2019. Hopefully Rohit and Virat would know when it’s time to give way to youngsters coz selectors won’t take that call.
— cricBC (@cricBC) April 12, 2022
Indian and Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma is at the moment struggling to find form in the IPL 2022: in 4 innings, he’s scored 80 runs at a strike rate of 125. Virat Kohli also doesn’t have great numbers either: 5 matches, 107 runs at a strike rate of 132.
