India’s interim skipper for the South Africa T20I series, Suryakumar Yadav, has hinted that the form of players in the IPL 2024 will be very crucial for their selection for the T20 World Cup 2024.
The IPL 2024 will end by the third of fourth week of May and the T20 World Cup 2024, in the West Indies and the USA, will kick-start on June 4.
India have only a few T20Is left to play. After the 3-T20I series in South Africa, India will host Afghanistan for 3 T20Is. And that’s it. India have fielded a second-string squad in the T20I series against Australia and South Africa, and are likely to do the same against Afghanistan as that series is sandwiched between the Test series against South Africa and England.
The lack of T20Is means that the form of not only youngsters, but even some senior players in the IPL 2024 will influence their selection, or non-selection, in the T20 World Cup squad.
We play 14 league games in the IPL as well: Suryakumar Yadav
Suryakumar Yadav was quick to point out that apart from the T20Is, the players will also feature in the IPL before the T20 World Cup.
Speaking on the eve of the 1st T20I in Durba, Suryakumar Yadav said: “I feel there are limited T20s going forward, before the T20 World Cup, but then we play 14 league games in the IPL as well. And players who have been playing in these T20 internationals… they’ve played a lot of games, and they have a lot of experience under their belt. So, we don’t think there will be an issue or any problem in selecting the squad because everyone knows their roles really well and responsibilities really well – [like] how to play in different situations.”
The South African captain Aiden Markram agreed with Suryakumar’s views. For the South African players, they will also feature in the SA20 in January.
Markram said: “We’re fortunate that there’s still a lot of T20 cricket, in terms of SA20 and the domestic T20 competition just after that. Hopefully, everyone can be fit and ready to go for us when it comes down to selecting the World Cup squad. But guys will be playing T20 cricket and ultimately we will be able to get a good gauge of what our best squad is that we can send out for the World Cup.”
