The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will sit down with team leaders Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma to discuss their future in T20I cricket after the duo were not selected for the T20I series against Sri Lanka despite making themselves available.
Reports suggest that the team management will talk to the former and current captains of the national team and persuade them to reconsider their future in the shortest format of international cricket. This matter will also be discussed when Chetan Sharma’s new look selection panel meets in the coming days.
After India's disappointing end in the 2022 T20 World Cup, where they were thrashed by England in the semifinals, the selectors have moved forward with younger players in the squad, led by the 2022 Indian Premier League (IPL) winning captain Hardik Pandya. Pandya will skipper the side during the T20I matches against New Zealand, after leading India to victory against Sri Lanka in the recently-concluded T20I series.
Despite multiple rumours, the BCCI has maintained the fact that Pandya is not the full-time T20I captain and Rohit continues to remain the all-format skipper.
The BCCI's current aim is to win the 2023 ODI World Cup, to be held on home soil October-November, and to do this, their idea is to keep the senior players well-rested for the World Cup and only play them in ODI bilateral till the World Cup comes around the corner.
Meanwhile, ahead of the ODI series between India and Sri Lanka, Rohit shut down all speculations regarding his future for the Men in Blue in the shortest format of the game. Speaking to reporters in the pre-match conference on the eve of the first T20I against the Islanders, Hitman came up with an affirmative reply when quizzed about his T20I future.
"Firstly, it is not possible to play back-to-back matches. You need to give them (players who play all three formats) enough break. I definitely fall into that as well. We have three T20Is against New Zealand. We will see what happens after IPL. I have not decided to give up the format," the India captain said.
