ICC T20 World Cup 2024: "When You Are 35-36"- Sunil Gavaskar Raises Concern Over Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli's Fielding Abilities

Former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar shared his thoughts regarding Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli playing in the T20 World Cup 2024. Both the senior players have informed the BCCI that they are available for selection for the marquee event.

India reached the T20 World Cup 2022 semi-final under Rohit Sharma’s captaincy. Virat Kohli scored the most runs as India lost to England in the semi-final. In less than 10 months, the next T20 World Cup is almost knocking on the door.

The ICC revealed the event schedule on Friday, January 5 with the India vs Pakistan clash set to be played in New York on December 9. As always India and Pakistan are pooled in the same group. The T20 World Cup this time will be a 20-team event with teams like Nepql, Canada, Papua New Guinea and Oman having qualified for the tournament.

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Sunil Gavaskar while speaking about India’s schedule spoke about the possibility of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli playing in the tournament. Hardik Pandya’s long-term injury might hinder him from playing in the tournament. He and Suryakumar Yadav who are struggling with injury concerns might miss the T20I series against Afghanistan which is India’s final T20I series ahead of the World Cup In June.

“Virat Kohli’s form has been outstanding for the past 1.5 years. He also played brilliantly at the ODI World Cup. So, there should not be any debate over his batting prowess in limited-overs cricket. A massive aspect is that Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are still excellent fielders,” Gavaskar told Star Sports during the T20 World Cup schedule announcement on Friday.

Sunil Gavaskar On Fielding Abilities Of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli

He further said that with both Kohli and Rohit aging between 35-26 fielding might be an issue with the senior players with the format demanding fitter players and the ones who can be agile on the field.

“Sometimes, you get slow when you are 35-36; your throw isn’t that good anymore. So, there are discussions over where to keep you while setting the field. That’s not a problem for these two because they are still terrific fielders. In addition to seniority in the dressing room, they will contribute on the field, too. We don’t know if Rohit will be captain, but whatever the case, any captain will surely benefit from that,” Gavaskar further said.

India’s T20I series against Afghanistan starts from January 11 with the selectors and the management having a final chance to identify players who might make it to the World Cup. Injury and workload of players might be another concern for the management to ponder about.

After the Afghanistan series, the Indian players will be playing the IPL in which all the players will look to perform to their best to board the flight to the USA and the Caribbean for the World Cup in June.

India might rest the likes of Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah in the Afghanistan T20I series. With SKY and Hardik lightly to miss the series, there are talks about Rohit Sharma back as the Indian captain to lead the side. It will be interesting to see if Virat Kohli makes it to the squad as well.

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