In a recent meeting with Indian captain Rohit Sharma, head coach Rahul Dravid, the selector committee, and top BCCI officials, a post-mortem of the ODI World Cup 2023 was done. After India ended their campaign as runners-up, their next major assignment is the T20 World Cup 2024 which will be played in the USA and the Caribbean. Meanwhile, in an injured Hardik Pandya’s absence, there is uncertainty over who will lead India in the mega event. Rohit, who joined the meeting virtually from London has reportedly asked the top BCCI officials and the selectors whether they want them to play in T20 World Cup or not.
According to Dainik Jagran, an official who was present in the meeting said that Rohit asked, "If you want to select me for the T20 World Cup then tell me now how to go about it.”
Rohit has not played a single T20I since India's World Cup 2022 semifinal loss to England in Australia. While Rohit and Virat Kohli have not played a single T20I since then, Pandya has not been named India's T20I captain for the T20 World Cup. Rohit and Kohli wanted to focus on Test format and ODIs before World Cup 2023 at home. With that out of way both the batters are likely to be available for selection next year.
As reported earlier, Rohit was also asked to lead India in the three-T20I series in South Africa starting December 10. However, he had asked for a one-month break after rigorous cricketing action which involved a lot of travel. Rohit will make his next international appearance when India take on South Africa in the two-Test series starting on December 26.
Meanwhile, Suryakumar Yadav will lead India in the T20I series. In the ODI format, KL Rahul will don the captaincy hat. Under Suryakumar’s captaincy, India beat Australia 4-1 at home last week.
On the other hand, Pandya has been sidelined since the ankle injury during the ODI World Cup match against Bangladesh. The injury ruled him out of the mega event. Since then, he has missed the T20I series against Australia and has not been named in white-ball format squads for the South Africa tour. It will be interesting to see whether he will be able to regain fitness before the three-T20I series against Afghanistan.
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