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India's 10-wicket humiliation at the hands of England in the T20 World Cup semi-final on Thursday which brought their campaign to a screeching halt has put the them under scanner.
Team India's back-to-back failure at the ICC tournaments has posed serious questions on the Indian team management as to why the Men in Blue, who are devoid of any ICC trophy in the last 9 years, are perishing despite boasting off the star-studded side.
Meanwhile, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will be holding a meeting with India's head coach Rahul Dravid, skipper Rohit Sharma and former captain Virat Kohli before deciding the future course of action pertinent to the T20 side following 10-wicket mauling at the hands England.
A board official said the next step will be taken only after hearing Dravid and the two players once they return from Australia. “We will call a meeting and discuss the roadmap for our T20 team,” the official told The Indian Express. “We don’t want to take any decision in haste. Let team management and players present their point of view first; the board will decide how to go about it later.”
The Indian cricket team was the second oldest squad of the T20 World in terms of age, as the average age of the side was 30.6. At 37, wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik was the oldest player in the Indian team while Rohit Sharma (35), Virat Kohli (33), R Ashwin (36), Suryakumar Yadav (32) and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar (32) were all above 30 as well.
Earlier, a BCCI source on Thursday said that India's T20 squad will undergo a major transition in the next 24 months because senior players such as Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin will be gradually eased out.
Hardik Pandya, who will lead the team in the three-match T20I series in New Zealand next week, is likely to be groomed as the next India captain in the shortest format. Pandya was the only player who looked up for a fight against England in the semifinals, where India – despite a star-studded line-up – did not have any response to the assault unleashed by Jos Buttler and Alex Hales.
However, Dravid said it's too early to talk about transition when he was asked about future of senior players like Kohli and Rohit in the post match press conference on Thursday.
"It's too early to talk about it right now just after a semi-final game. These guys have been terrific performers for us. Like you said, we have a couple of years to reflect on it," Dravid said.
While some of the players have been contemporary greats of the game, Dravid doesn't want anyone to write them off in haste.
"There are some really good quality players here, so absolutely not the right time to talk about this stuff or think about this stuff right now.
"We'll have enough games, enough matches as we go on ahead, and India will try and build and prepare for the next World Cup,” the head coach added.
It is understood that for the next one year, the T20Is will take a back seat as India play at least 25 ODIs, going into next year's 50-over World Cup at home.
A look at India's FTP calendar shows that till the 50-over World Cup, the team will play only 12 T20Is in form of bilateral events (home and away), starting with three games in New Zealand next week.
